Ugly Little Uchiha - A Sad Fairy Tale
by Gweatherwax
Summary: Who better to raise a monster than another? Sometimes, huge mistakes can only be corrected by great tragedies. CANON verse, deviates post-chapter 700. Mature/dark themes, angst, violence, child abandonment/abuse/murder. Naruto and Sasuke's bond rebuilt from zero. Shonen-ai. NOT for Sakura and Hinata fans, hater SS/NH fans will be summarily ignored. Beta'd. Cover image by me.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**:

Agh, ANOTHER canon spin-off?

Yes, ANOTHER ONE. Thanks to my deranged brain that dreamed the prompt, which became a challenge, and some peeps of mine at Tumblr that pushed me to develop it.

**WARNING** \- This is **HEAVY** shit. The characters' behaviors and motives are based on what happens in canon AFTER chapter 700, that includes The Last. Due to Kishimoto's screw-ups I WILL HAVE TO DECONSTRUCT TO REBUILD THEM as believable, tridimensional characters that can be recognized as what they were being somewhat developed to be BEFORE the shitfest canon ending. So don't you all go filling my inbox with hate mail, it's NOT my fault the characters are presented as different people from what they were for 698 chapters.

Bolt and Salad ARE neglected by their fathers in canon, Sakura and Hinata don't mind that behavior at all, Naruto doesn't care that his child feels neglected, Naruto DID only fall in love with Hinata due to a genjutsu, ninjas ARE unnecessary and the harmful ninja system was NOT addressed at all by either Naruto or Kakashi who was Hokage before him.

IT ALL HAPPENED IN CANON, so take your complaints to Kishimoto.

By the way this MIGHT turn into a full on SNS story. It **certainly **will deal with SNS on the deepest platonic emotional level, but I'm not sure if the destruction of their bond done by Kishimoto can be fixed to the point they (especially Sasuke, that boy is fucked up) can become romantic towards each other, so _don't expect smut to happen_, or **any** romantic pairings.

Other than about that, PLEASE DO REVIEW MY STUFF. I NEEDS CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM LIKE A PLANT NEEDS SUNLIGHT. REVIEWS KEEP FANFICS ALIVE!

Thank you.

Special thanks to mah homies que-bae (still waiting on your version you lazy-ass bibiri-kun!), uchihanochidori, fangirlandiknowit, kizukatana, Kitsune-Ohime-Sama and my WONDERFUL, AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, UNBELIEVABLE beta Lohrendrell for their support.

* * *

It was almost past the ninth of October, a stormy, dark, freezing night. Ominous thunder sounded through the old village neighborhood of the only large city in the continent, while a tall man crossed the streets in a hurried pace, towards the old hospital.

And inside, in a delivery room, a woman with pink hair screamed in pain.

"Come on, Sakura, you're used to this already, it's just labor," old Tsunade chided the crying woman. "You don't want to scare your husband, do you?"

Uchiha Sakura immediately stopped her crying, and reached for a towel to dry her face.

"Good," Tsunade grunted, and paid attention to her work, the child already crowning.

"Where's Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, putting on a brave face and trying to fix her hair with a mirror through the contractions. It did not do to look disheveled at a time like this.

She did her best to hide her anxiety. It was nine years after she had scored her biggest prize, and she had spent eight of them trying to convince her husband to try for another child, after the disappointment that was Salad.

She crossed her fingers one more time, hoping desperately for a boy, a boy that would make Sasuke stay, would make him proud of her, would make him love her.

The contractions suddenly spiked, at the same time a burst of lightning hit the hospital's surge arrester. The lights went out, and Tsunade sighed. Damn old building had given all it could, already. It was good enough to tear down, but it was the only free hospital in Konoha, and Tsunade would only let it close over her dry, dead body. Which would take some time to happen, due to Orochimaru's help with her rejuvenating jutsu.

"Come on, Sakura, a couple more and it's over," she encouraged the pink-haired woman, navigating by feel and preparing to catch the newborn.

Another bout of lightning suddenly lit the room, at the same time the mother gave the final push, and the silhouette of the tall man showed against the open door.

No cry was heard.

"Tsunade!" Sakura exclaimed in worry. No. Not now, not after all this trouble…

"It's ok, I'm on it," the old Sannin said, turning the baby over her knee and massaging its back.

The technique worked, and the baby's first cry was heard at the same time the lights came back on. The old doctor cut the baby's cord and moved it to a side table.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura called out, a victorious smile on her face. The man gave her a cold look as he entered the room.

"Oh." They heard, along with the newborn's loud cries.

"What is it?" Uchiha Sasuke asked drily.

Tsunade sighed, knowing exactly what he wanted to hear. "It's a boy," she answered, and Sakura squealed in delight (and a great amount of relief).

"But," she amended, giving the couple a sad look.

"But what?" Sasuke spit out, scowling.

"Tsunade-shishou, what's wrong?" Sakura asked, tilting her head and giving her best innocent look, a ball of fear suddenly weighing on her stomach.

Tsunade finished the first care measures on the newborn, and wrapped him in the blue blanket with the Uchiha symbol that Sakura had provided, before she carried him over to his parents.

"I'm so sorry, Sakura," she said, before showing the child's face to them.

Uchiha Sakura screamed.

* * *

The Nanadaime Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, raised his head from the desk mid-snore at the sound of the cell phone.

"What?" he asked after picking it up, in an irritated voice. The signs of slumber left his face as he listened.

"Don't let them do anything until I get there, I'm on my way," he warned, before opening the window and jumping out into the stormy night.

A couple of minutes later he was busting through the delivery room's window, drawn in by the screaming and the sound of a thousand birds.

"Sasuke stand down!" he shouted, extending his right arm out to the Uchiha as he jumped over Tsunade, who was crouched next to the window, clutching a wailing bundle to her chest.

"Get out of here, Naruto. This isn't your business," Sasuke said in a calm, icy tone, his Chidori-enhanced katana drawn.

"You're trying to kill your own child, a citizen of Konoha, of course it's my business," Naruto retorted angrily.

"_That_," the Uchiha said, pointing at the child on Tsunade's arms, "Is a monster, not a child. It must be put out of its misery."

Naruto's eyes widened. He looked at Sasuke's haunted look, and then at Sakura, who was curled up into a ball on the bed, crying convulsively.

"Sakura-chan, what the hell is he talking about?" he asked her.

"Sasuke-kun… I'm so sorry… I'm so sorry… please forgive me…" she babbled, oblivious to Naruto's question, and the Hokage turned to the crouching elder behind him.

"Baa-chan, what the hell is going on?" he asked, and she showed him.

Under a mop of black hair, and right over the distinct Uchiha nose, rested a single larger than normal eye.

The child was malformed.

"Does it have any other abnormalities? Will it live?" Naruto asked Tsunade.

"None that I could detect, and yes, as long as it's allowed to," she answered him.

Naruto turned his head back to look at Sasuke. "It's not a monster just because it's different, Sasuke. It's your child. An Uchiha," he said. "And a citizen of Konoha. I will not allow you, or anyone, to kill a defenseless citizen who has done nothing to deserve it."

Sasuke scowled at him. "_That_," he said, and pointed to the child with his katana, again, "Is no _Uchiha_. It is _not_ my child. I will _not_ acknowledge it, or allow it under my roof," he snarled, and turned around to leave the room, but stopped at the front of Sakura's bed.

"This marriage ends here. I have no interest in women who can only produce _defective_ children," he informed the crying woman coldly, and left.

Naruto was left gaping. Sure, he himself didn't exactly treat his children as lovingly as other fathers did their own, but that was extreme.

Tsunade stood and deposited the newborn in the nearby cradle, before moving to console the grieving mother.

"Sakura… please, your baby needs to feed," she said softly.

Sakura started to chuckle darkly between sobs. "My baby… **THAT. MONSTER. IS. NOT. MY. ****_BABY_**!" she hollered, raising her head.

Tsunade and Naruto both flinched at her rabid expression.

"All I ever wanted was to give Sasuke-kun a _son_! A healthy, _perfect_ heir so he would finally recognize my worth and love me! But no, oh _no_, it wasn't enough that I suffered and longed for him all my damn _life_, it wasn't enough that I had to snivel and beg and humiliate myself for _years_ to convince him to marry me, it wasn't enough that my firstborn was a useless _girl_ that turned out to have bad eyes, no!" she screamed in fury, standing up, the residual blood from the birth running down her legs.

"I just **HAD** to be cursed and have this… this **_thing_**," she spit out, and started walking toward the crib, "come out of my disgraced womb, to disgust Sasuke-kun and make him hate me!" she yelled, and lunged forward.

Naruto barely intercepted her, but was able to hold her back. "Sakura-chan, you're not yourself, calm down, it's nobody's fault, these things happen to anyone!" he shouted at her.

"Sasuke-kun is not anyone! He's _Uchiha Sasuke_! It was bad enough when Salad's eyes turned out to be faulty! You heard him, he's going to leave me… and it's _all_ this freak's fault!" she yelled again, stretching her arms to the deformed child, her hands curled into claws, nearly toppling Naruto in her murderous rage.

"Sasuke-kun doesn't have to do it, I'll kill this deformed _beast_ myself! Monster! Demon!" she raged, until Tsunade grabbed her arm and injected her with a heavy sedative. "Naruto… please… kill it… please destroy this thing… if it's gone, maybe Sasuke-kun can forgive me…" she mumbled as the sedative took effect, holding onto Naruto's robe.

He carried her to a nearby room and deposited her on a clean bed, following Tsunade back to the delivery room afterwards and taking a seat next to the crib.

"Holy shit," he whispered, and rubbed his face. "What do you think, baa-chan? It's just the shock, right? They ought to come to their senses, I mean, shit…" he said in a low voice, and looked down at the sad, ugly little baby.

He couldn't hold himself back from touching the little hand that escaped the wrappings, and gave a soft, sad smile as it grabbed the tip of his finger. The unsightly infant opened his bleary eye, and looked at the finger in confusion, and then up at him, pouting.

Tsunade sighed, and pulled a chair for herself. "Naruto, how much do you know about Sakura and Sasuke's marriage?" she asked in a tired voice.

"Not much, well, you know… what with me and Hinata getting married, and the kids, and all, we kinda lost contact," he said in an embarrassed voice.

Honestly, he had decided to shy away from his friends to keep the peace at home.

Being part of the Hyuuga clan wasn't easy, especially considering that neither Bolt nor Himawari had inherited the Byakugan. That had been such a disappointment for the clan that Hiashi had stated them unfit even as part of the branch family, so both children carried the Uzumaki name, instead of their mother's, and Hinata had been demoted in the family ranks, the official heir to the clan's leadership being young Hanabi, who had already been set up to marry a cousin.

So Naruto tried to atone for that disappointment by doing all he could to emulate his father-in-law's behavior. It pleased Hinata that he did all he could to conform to her family's standards, so that's what he did. It also didn't seem to bother her that he hardly ever had time to spend with their children; she waved his worries away saying that it was a mother's job to raise them, and the father should work hard to be a respectable provider.

In the end, both Naruto's embarrassment for ruining Hinata's future as clan head and his stance on fatherhood had distanced him from his children, and vice-versa. Himawari never complained, having inherited her mother's meek, understanding nature, but Bolt… Bolt was a problem. After many fights, the boy simply stopped caring about what the clan thought about his attitude, and did all he could to stay away from the family.

It didn't help that his father-in-law and his wife both frowned at Naruto's choices of friends, so he had given up on those, as well. Not to mention that, in Sakura and Sasuke's case, the pink kunoichi had actively pushed him away, citing Sasuke's jealousy as the reason.

"Wasn't my fault either, Sakura-chan always said Sasuke was jealous of her being around me," he defended himself, as Tsunade gave him a meaningful look.

The old Sannin sighed again. "Naruto, Sasuke only married Sakura because he took her virginity," she said, and Naruto's eyes widened.

"I don't know the details, but apparently somehow she convinced him to have sex with her and then her father demanded he married her to keep her honor," she continued, "so he did. It's never been a loving relationship, even though Sakura does her very best to be a good wife. And then Salad was born, and… Sasuke's reaction wasn't the best at having a daughter as his first child. It got even worse when she developed vision problems"; she took a deep breath, "Sakura has spent the last eight years trying to convince Sasuke to try again. He has been wandering all these years, coming back once a year at most. His relationship with his daughter is inexistent, and with his wife… according to Sakura, it's complicated."

"So you mean that…" he started, not sure if he wanted to hear the rest.

"Yes. I don't think either of them will want this poor thing," Tsunade stated, looking down at the deformed newborn with pity. "To be brutally frank, I don't think there's anyone who would want a child with such a severe abnormality. It's not life threatening, but the disfigurement…" she shrugged.

"I'll take him," Naruto said without thinking, and then stopped, startled.

What was he thinking? He was the Hokage, and a married man with two children of his own, who he barely saw! He couldn't just up and bring another child into his home as if it was a lost kitten, especially not into the Hyuuga compound and a child with this kind of issue. It was enough that his own children were viewed with prejudice…

But then the baby shook his finger, and cooed, raising his face to look at him again in what seemed a questioning look, pouted again, and Naruto's defenses fell.

"I'll take him," he repeated. "What better parent for a monster than another, huh?" he asked, and grinned at Tsunade, before picking up the ugly little Uchiha.

She looked at him with a sad, but resigned expression. "Fine, it's better to take him away from Sakura, anyway. But you need to sign a few documents for me to release him. I'll get you some diapers and formula, and get him fed -"

"Bring it here, I'm not completely useless, baa-chan. I know how to bottle-feed a baby," Naruto interrupted, seemingly fascinated by the newborn in his arms. "There's probably some of the kids' old baby clothes at home, too, so don't raid the charity closet too hard," he told her, and she nodded before leaving him and the newborn alone in the delivery room.

"Hi, I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I'm sorry about your mommy and daddy not wanting you… I didn't have a mommy and a daddy too, so I know how it is," Naruto spoke to the baby in a soft voice. "And I know it's hard to grow up with people being afraid of you. So, if you don't mind, I can be your Papa, at least until your daddy stop being an asshole long enough to realize this isn't your fault, ok?"

The deformed child started crying in hunger, but much more quietly than Naruto was used to.

"Heh," he chuckled, "can't deny you're Uchiha, you're_ all_ uptight, huh?" he asked.

The baby looked at him startled, and stopped crying with a chin-crunching pout.

Tsunade stood quietly by the door, unnoticed, with a bottle in one hand and a large baby bag under her other arm.

"Don't give me that look, it's true! You should've seen Bolt cry when he was your age, little dude could be heard across the village," he said, and his voice went sad as he walked to stay next to the broken window, shielding the baby against the cold air. "I wanted to call him Menma, but Hinata chose Bolt because of Neji… and I couldn't deny her that. Couldn't deny her anything, really, her cousin died to save her, and she's been so fragile since then, I feel bad all the time."

He stood pensive for a while, but then his eyes sparkled. "Yeah, but you aren't Hinata's… so maybe I could call you Menma, right? I always wanted to give that name to one of my sons, Menma was my bestest friend after your stupid daddy, he was a great guy, I really loved him," his eyes went misty with memories, "he lived with me for a while, and he was really, really important to me, dattebayo. So, now that I'm your Papa, and you need a name, then you'll be Uzumaki Menma, ok?" he asked softly.

The baby gurgled, and Naruto smiled.

"Food's here," Tsunade called, and Naruto turned, walking over to her quickly.

"Please put his name down on the provisory documents as Uzumaki Menma, and me as the father. You can leave the mother's name as "unknown," I… I don't want Sasuke and Sakura to have to deal with repercussions, but I don't want to be just his legal guardian, so I need you to do that to include him into my family registry. And as to Sakura's pregnancy… can you make it seem as if it was stillborn?" he asked her quietly, while feeding the baby, and she nodded.

"Sure, brat. But… what about Hinata?" she used the same tone to him.

He gave her a determined look. "I gave up a lot of things for her, baa-chan. But I'm not giving him up, not even for her. I can't do that, and all I can hope for is that she understands."

Tsunade nodded. "I'll get the papers ready then. Need help getting him ready to leave? I brought Sakura's baby bag, it's got his clothes and stuff… I don't think she'll want to take it back home," she added, and Naruto nodded gratefully.

"Thanks," he said, and turned his attention to the ugly child. His Menma.

* * *

**A/N**: The origin of the name Menma is **NOT** the Menma from RTN, it is the Menma from the anime part I filler arc, the amnesiac boy that Naruto saves while looking for menma at a riverbank for Ichiraku. The Menma from that filler arc became Naruto's best friend after Sasuke, lived with him for over a month, and Naruto built a little shrine for him close to Konoha after his death.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**:

Thank you for your reviews!

To Zuzu: homie is short for both homeboy and homegirl (yup that term exists) :DAgain, please keep the reviews coming. They are the incentive that keeps us writers producing stories for your enjoyment.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke didn't often visit the city. He didn't particularly hate it, but felt a wrongness to it. In his mind, a hidden ninja village was supposed to be, well, hidden.

And Konoha city proper was bigger than the Fire Country's Capital City, housing most of the population in the entire world, with its 3 million people (half of which were children under the age of ten, all born after the war).

But tonight, he navigated the rainy streets towards the seedier part of the city, on the outskirts opposite the old village district.

He ran in a daze, fury, anger, disappointment and fear clouding his vision. Soon he saw a flickering neon sign, and entered a small, dirty, run-down bar.

He went straight to the counter, pulling his wallet.

"Three bottles of vodka to go," he ordered.

The bartender raised his eyebrows, but quickly went to the back to fill his order after the one-armed man glared at him.

Sasuke paid and left the bar as quietly as he had gone in, and made his way out of the city and its offending bright lights, running without a set destination in mind, aiming only for the wilderness. Ninja felt safer amongst trees.

He ironically found himself in the Valley of the End, turned into a national park a couple of years ago.

The broken remains of Hashirama and Madara's statues greeted him in the darkness at the same time the rain stopped falling, and he took refuge halfway up one of the few ancient trees left alive by the relentless hunger of progress.

He forced himself to drink an entire bottle before allowing his thoughts to surface.

Not for the first time since the war, he wondered if it hadn't been better if he had allowed Naruto to kill him.

Not that he hadn't tried, he thought, mindlessly touching the stump of his left arm. But no. In the end, he couldn't bring himself to stop his final attack and let the rasengan blow his body to smithereens.

And he had even believed the pile of shit Naruto had poured on him, about needing him, about him having a place in his plans, in his life.

Of course, he hadn't had any. His one and only friend had completely ignored his existence after the last time they had met, when he had left for his atonement voyage. He had just abandoned their bond as if it were nothing, not even bothering to let him know when he married the Hyuuga girl, much less thank him for defending Konoha while he was busy saving the useless woman's even more useless sister from a travesty of a villain in the moon.

Of course, together with their bond, the son of a bitch abandoned the promised reparation for the crimes committed against the Uchiha clan.

Not only that, but he had turned the ninja profession into a mockery of the old days. The "peaceful world" he and the other useless Kage had created was just as rotten as the previous one, with the exception that now, instead of openly killing people, the elite ate their lives away with low paying, thankless, useless jobs that only fed the meat-grinding machine that was "economic progress".

Sasuke chugged from his second bottle and hn'd. In the end, Madara's Infinite Tsukuyomi would have been better than this, he mused. At least people had the fantasy of being happy while they were being transformed into mindless zombies. Now, they didn't even have that.

He tried to drown what had happened tonight with more vodca, but the images kept coming back to him.

The irony of it all was so obvious, it made him laugh out loud.

Of course the last Uchiha had to screw up even trying to keep the bloodline alive.

It had all started a couple of weeks after Naruto's wedding. Sasuke had come back to the village, pissed beyond belief that the piece of shit that he had held as his only fucking special person hadn't even cared enough to tell him about it. He had been hell bent into beating the shit out of the blond, but Sakura found him first, and dragged him off to drink his sorrow.

She had told him that Naruto had married the Hyuuga girl out of spite, because she had rejected him, so Sasuke's anger-ridden, alcohol-impaired brain had the brilliant idea to fuck the pink-haired kunoichi to spite the usuratonkachi back, to which she had enthusiastically agreed.

The trap had become obvious the next day, when Sakura's angry father had broken into her room and demanded reparation of her virginity by marriage. Sasuke had swallowed it like the complete fool he was, hook, line and sinker.

And so he married his old teammate, for which he had no other good feelings except a faint sense of obligation due to their past in team seven, which was quickly dispelled by her blatant manipulation. Even so, if he was forced to participate into this sham of a relationship, then he'd at least try to get something out of it.

So he fucked her once more before staying in the village that had destroyed his clan became unbearable again, and she got pregnant.

He had been gone through her entire pregnancy, but came back to see the birth of his first child.

He had cooly regarded the baby girl. Of course the useless bitch couldn't produce a boy to carry on the Uchiha name. Still, it was better than nothing, he could at least hope the bloodline limit would go on. Even so, Sakura kept pestering him to try for another child, promising to him it would be male this time.

Two years later, the girl's eyes proved to be defective. Her eyesight had deteriorated, and she had to wear glasses. An Uchiha with poor eyesight before even developing the Sharingan.

Sasuke could hear his ancestors mocking him from their graves. Obviously she had to be a completely useless kunoichi, just like her failure of a mother. Who had, of course, enrolled the child in the Academy, as another excuse to rub the fact she was married to an Uchiha on the other village women's faces, without regards to Sasuke's shame at his loins having produced such a laughing stock to the clan's name.

That had cooled even more a relationship that hadn't been warm to begin with, and Sasuke had spent the next six years away, wandering aimlessly in search of a purpose to his life.

He had returned to Konoha at the beginning of this year, fulfilled his marital duties, and left again, only to receive news of her new pregnancy a couple of months later.

Apparently she had resorted to tampering with the condoms he had taken to use whenever they had their obligatory intercourse.

Sasuke snorted at the futility of it. He had given her everything he could, his name, his status, his wealth, a child. He dutifully fucked her once whenever he could force himself to return to that odious village. What else did she think she could drag out of him by having another child, if the first had proven to be a failure?

Still, as the legitimate father he had obligingly come to witness the birth of his second heir.

Which, to add insult to the previous injury, had turned out to be a hideous, deformed _monster_.

He stood on the tree branch, his bloodline limit activating in his rage, and descended to the ground to start systematically destroying the trees around him, gritting his teeth as the night's previous events replayed in his mind, his photographic memory as ironically perfect as ever.

He recalled Tsunade's pitiful glance at him, when she showed him the misshapen product of his loins.

And Sakura's screams.

And that one abnormally large eye in an otherwise perfect reproduction of his own face as a baby.

(he started to scream as he kept blowing the trees to splinters with Chidori)

And that motherfucker barging in through the window like some stupid movie superhero.

And pretending to be all reasonable and caring, as if the last ten years hadn't happened at all!

(he attacked a boulder with his bare hand, his chakra control lost, foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog)

As if he hadn't _abandoned_ him!

As if he could understand what that _thing_ meant to the future of his clan!

Sasuke threw a last, knuckle-crunching blow at the rock, and let his sweating, bloody body slide to the ground, laughing hysterically through his sobbing.

Future?

_What_ future?

No future…

* * *

The guards at the Hyuuga compound looked strangely at Naruto, but opened the gate to him nevertheless.

He had asked Tsunade to make him a sling for little Menma, so his hands would be free to carry the baby's meager baggage. He wore it under his robes to keep him a little warmer in the chilly October night.

He opened the door to his home quietly, and awkwardly slipped off his sandals, trying not to jostle too much.

"Naruto-kun?" he heard the soft, sleepy voice coming from the living room, and a soft light went on by the couch.

"Tadaima", he said in a quiet voice, and came over to kiss a sleepy-looking Hinata, sitting next to her with a tired sigh. He knew it wouldn't be easy to make Hinata understand his decision, what with her embracing her clan's traditionalism - which, to him, had been a way to cope with Neji's death more than a natural decision - but he hoped she could accept it.

"Okaeri… what's that?" she asked curiously, and then frowned at his serious expression. "Are you ok?"

Naruto put a protective arm over the bundle pressed against his chest and breathed deeply. "Hinata… something important happened tonight and I need to know if you can support me."

"Oh!" she interrupted him, and smiled. "Happy birthday, Naruto-kun", she said, and gave him a red scarf. She had knitted him a new one every year for his birthday, since they had started dating.

"Thank you," he said, taking it, but keeping his eyes on her. "Hinata please, this is important. I have done something… something serious."

She gave him an uncomprehending look, and he continued. "This… this is Menma. He was born today, and I have registered him as my son," he said gravely, and opened his robes to pull down the sling, exposing the newborn's face.

Hinata's pearly-white eyes went as wide as saucers, and she paled.

Naruto waited as she processed what he had said. A couple of minutes passed before Hinata's face set in a determined look. He was beginning to feel hopeful, but then,

"No, Naruto-kun."

Hinata's response had a final sound, but Naruto tried to reason with her nonetheless.

"He doesn't have anyone, Hinata. His parents tried to kill him, called him a monster. I couldn't just leave him, nobody would want him."

"And you thought I would?" Hinata asked in an uncharacteristically cold voice. She looked at him with the same determined look she had given the deformed child. "How could you do this without asking me what I wanted? You shouldn't have meddled with the parents' decision, Naruto-kun. Please, please return this child to where it came from."

Naruto flinched at her cold words. "Hinata, I'm the Hokage. I can't just allow people to kill their own children, it's not right."

"The life of a child belongs to their parents as much as the lives of the clan members belong to the clan leaders, Naruto-kun. I thought you understood that when we got married," she interrupted him again, in that strange, detached voice. "You promised to abide by the traditional rules of kinship when we married, Naruto. It is part of the Hyuuga marriage wovs and you said them at our wedding. You accepted that our children wouldn't carry the Hyuuga name because they didn't have the Byakugan. Why would you think I would agree that you meddle in another family's rules? This is not your child to fight for, Naruto-kun. Please return it."

Naruto looked down at the sleeping little Menma, and set his jaw in anger. "No, Hinata," he returned her cool stare. "I accepted our kids to be Uzumaki because I am proud to be Uzumaki. I'm not Hyuuga. I'm not obligated to your family's tradition. And I'm not letting anyone else die for stupid clan rules. Neji's is enough blood in my hands, Hinata."

"Neji and I both understood the reason for our family's tradition. He understood the reason for the division between main and branch families was to protect the Hyuuga clan as a whole, Naruto-kun. That is why he sacrificed himself in my place, and I am _proud_ of him for that," Hinata said in a calm voice, but Naruto could see the fury building behind her pupiless eyes. "It's the same reason why I stepped down from my place in line as the heir to the clan's leadership. The Hyuuga line is important, Naruto-kun. The Byakugan defines our family."

"I'm not asking him to be part of your clan, Hinata. I'm going to register him under my name, without a mother's name. You won't have anything to do with him, he'll be my son alone," he said quietly.

"Naruto-kun, you're a man. It isn't a man's job to raise the children, you know that. And I… I can't raise this child for you. What will Bolt and Himawari think, Naruto-kun? What will my father think? What about my clan's reputation? Bolt and Himawari already made the clan lose face, how can you ask me to further lower the Hyuuga social status by raising a deformed child?" she asked, and her voice was hurt as she looked away from him.

"Besides, do you really think people will believe you just happened to be around when this child was born and decided to adopt it out of the blue? And while we're at it, Naruto-kun, do you believe me to be so simple I can't see whose child it is with my own eyes?" Hot, angry tears began falling from her eyes, and Naruto felt a chill run through his spine at her outburst.

"Why did you do this, Naruto-kun? Is it really because it was going to die, or is it because… because it's _hers_?" Hinata asked.

"So that's how it is, then," he said quietly, keeping a calm gaze on her. "No, Hinata. I didn't do it because it's hers. For all the gods' sakes, Hinata, _look_ at him. I did it because he's like _me_. Yes, Tsunade baa-chan called me because it's Sasuke and Sakura's baby, and I am… or rather _was_, their best friend. But no matter who sired or who birthed him, I'd have done the same thing, because he's just. Like. _Me_."

Hinata snorted through her tears. "Please Naruto-kun, don't compare having the Kyuubi sealed in you with… with _this_. It's completely different," she said.

"Why? Because he's _ugly_ and I'm _not_?" he asked in the same quiet tone.

A long while passed in silence while he held her under his gaze.

"I see," Naruto said, feeling his world crumble around him, as Hinata's silence told him all he wanted to know.

He only realized how strongly he was clutching the child when it cried a small complaint. He looked down to see the single black eye looking up at him, seemingly in question, and ran a finger through the tiny face, breathing through his teeth.

He nodded, and stood up, the scarf sliding to the floor, forgotten.

"I'm sorry I asked so much of you, Hinata," he said in a dead voice. "I'll talk to your father later. For now, we'll be going to the Hokage Tower."

"N-Naruto-kun," she cried out softly, looking up at him. "Please reconsider… for me, for our children," she asked through her sobs. "I love you..."

He stared at her, wondering why he felt only emptiness at seeing her crying like this. It was a bizarre feeling, like coming out of a genjutsu into an even worse reality.

"I know," he said, "and I'm sorry."

He made his way to the door and put his sandals back on with mechanical movements, picked up the bags he had dropped, and left without looking back.

It was only when he sat on his office chair, and looked down at the baby nestled against him, that he allowed himself to burst into desperate tears.

* * *

October 10th had become a holiday after the war, and Uzumaki Bolt did the same thing he did every day without classes: he got up, put his clothes on, picked up his weapons pouch, grabbed something easy to eat from the breakfast table and left the house without looking at or talking to anyone.

He didn't even notice his mother's absence at the table, since the servants actually cooked their meals and cleaned the house instead of her.

He made his way to the training grounds in silence, stopping only when he reached the small bridge that spanned over a rivulet that separated the village proper from the training grounds.

"Fuck off, Uchiha," he said, and kept going.

Honestly, when would that stupid girl stop with her pointless stalking? It gave him the creeps. He had complained about it to his mother when it had started a year ago, on the first day of school no less, but she had only laughed and said girls were like that, she herself had done it to his father, and it meant she liked him.

Bolt still thought it was gross, and his mother's speech had only furthered his contempt for The Scumbag, as he secretly called his absent, self-absorbed, hateful father. Trust The Scumbag to like having a stupid girl shadowing his every step, probably made his stupid ego even bigger than it was, too.

He stopped in front of the training dummies and sighed, rubbing his face with a hand, before turning around and resolutely stomping to the nearby trees, and yanking Uchiha Salad out from behind one of them.

"Do you know why I _don't_ punch those stupid glasses into your face, Uchiha?" he asked in an angry voice, and she flinched. "_**DO YOU**_?"

She shook her head with a frightened face.

"Because if I do, The Scumbag will beat the shit out of me and mom will ground me for a year for beating up a stupid _girl_," he said, nearly spitting the last word at her. "That is the only reason I haven't done it. _**I. DON'T. LIKE. YOU**_. You're _gross_. You're _stupid_. You're _useless_. I would rather date my _sister_ than you, and trust me, _I don't like her either_. Is that _**clear**_?"

She nodded, but Bolt noticed a rebellious spark in her eye, so he made sure to shake her roughly before pushing her away in disgust.

"Get the fuck _**AWAY**_ from me, or so help me I'll take my chances with The Scumbag," he growled as she stood up, and she backpedaled a bit before turning and running away.

* * *

Salad wiped the tears that were threatening to fall. She wouldn't allow herself to cry, even though Mama had told her it helped: crying just made her glasses dirty.

She kept saying to herself that she was doing the right thing, all the way to the hospital. After all, Mama had taught her that a girl's most important dream was to marry her first love, wasn't it? And Bolt had been the first boy Salad had noticed. It had to be him.

Mama had also told her that in order to have the boy she wanted she had to be persistent. She had used her own story as an example: hadn't she endured over a decade of abuse, multiple attempts against her life, and had gotten her prize in the end?

_"It doesn't matter what the boy says he feels, or wants. If you really persevere, he'll recognize your feelings and marry you. Look at your Papa and I. He married me, right? And he made love to me, you're proof of that," she had said. "That means he loves me more than anything, no matter what. So you have to be persistent, and keep going after the boy you want, no matter what he says or does to you. It might seem as if he doesn't like you, might look like he even hates you, but you'll win in the end. And that is all that matters." _

She walked into the hospital and asked quietly for her mama's room at the reception, and then made her way to the maternity ward.

She was nearing her mama's room when the sounds of an argument made her stop.

"You can't do that! She's your daughter! Her father already abandoned her, now you're going to do the same?" her grandma's voice was heard clearly, and then some lower voice responded. Salad knocked on the door and entered quietly.

Her grandmother and grandfather looked at her, clearly distraught about something, but Salad ignored them. They were always arguing with Mama about something or other, usually Papa's behavior or absence, or Mama having given up her work as a medic-nin, or how Mama had no friends.

Mama didn't care about what they thought, and Mama was always right, so Salad didn't care either.

She went to her mama's bed and looked around curiously.

"Mama? Where's my brother?" she asked in a polite voice.

Her mama looked at her with a strange, unfriendly face.

"Salad, you are to go live with your grandma and grandpa now," she said in her serious voice.

Salad looked up at her, startled.

"Your brother didn't survive the birth. And your papa is very, very mad. He wanted a perfect child like him, but neither you nor your brother were perfect, and now he's upset at me. So you have to leave, because Papa is my most important dream and I can't lose him because of you." Salad's mama smiled, and caressed Salad's cheek with her pointer finger.

Salad's eyes filled up with tears.

"Mama… you don't want me anymore? What did I do?" she asked.

Salad's mama looked at her with the same smile on her face.

"Of course I want you, Salad. But I want your papa _more_. You know that."

"Sakura, that's enough," grandpa said, and pulled Salad away. "Come on, baby, let's go get your things and go home. Don't worry, it's going to be all right."

Salad kept her eyes on her mama as grandpa picked her up and left, with grandma trailing after them.

Mama waved goodbye at her, still smiling.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks everyone for the reviews! Please keep them coming, they are the gauge by which I measure the quality of what I'm doing!

* * *

Naruto thanked all the gods he could think of that Kakashi had turned Tsunade's old examining room next to the Hokage's office back into a bedroom.

He had collapsed on the bed, after feeding and changing Menma, clutching the child next to him.

He dreamed about Sasuke, running, running, running, always running away from him.

And when he finally couldn't run away anymore, demanding Naruto to give him answers that Naruto couldn't give.

"What exactly do you mean by friend?"

Naruto had felt the question cut him inside like the sharpest icicle, and where it cut, it let out a snake den of fears.

Fear of being abandoned.

Fear of being rejected.

Fear of being judged.

Fear of not getting what he wanted.

Fear of being accepted.

Fear of being trapped.

Fear of being forced to accept.

Fear.

So Naruto had given a half-assed answer, showing what he felt but refusing to give it a name.

Because he had given Sasuke everything else, but he couldn't give him this.

It was too much.

His bond with the last Uchiha was like a black hole, swallowing everything Naruto wanted to be, wanted to have, wanted to build, and Naruto couldn't, wouldn't.

Self-preservation made him lie to himself, pretend that Sasuke would be alright without him, that he would be alright without Sasuke.

Didn't Sasuke himself say the cycle of fate had been broken?

So when Sasuke asked Naruto to go with him, to follow him into the world, to see, to know, to understand so they could, together, change it, Naruto didn't.

Not because he thought he already understood and knew.

But because if he had gone, Sasuke would have swallowed him whole.

And he would have let him.

He would have jumped into the black hole and let it consume him, until there was no longer a Naruto or a Sasuke, but only them. A single beast with two heads and one heart, joined never to survive being separated again.

And that knowledge had terrified him to his core.

Him, who had to fight so much to make others acknowledge who he was.

Him, who had built himself from scrap, by himself, without instructions.

Him, who knew nothing but to be himself, even if his self was a patchwork of the things he wanted to be, wanted to do, wanted to build.

So he had Sasuke go, knowing that no matter what he said afterwards, no matter how long he kept using those stupid bandages on his arm, no matter what everyone thought about it (and how ironic it had been when everyone had hailed his decision as the right, the mature, adult one), he was breaking their bond, breaking his word, breaking his nindo.

Choosing the easy way out, for he couldn't be what he (thought he) wanted to be with Sasuke by his side.

Hashirama had tried, tried to keep Madara by his side, while still keeping some distance, and look how well that went.

Naruto had seen that, had taken the lessons of the sage to heart.

No one loves as deeply as an Uchiha.

No one needs the one they love so much as an Uchiha.

One soul, broken in two.

Yin, the heart.

Yang, the brain.

Naruto had consciously driven away his heart.

He had suffered in silence for years, until that fateful mission to retrieve Hinata's sister.

After that, Naruto hadn't suffered anymore.

Sasuke had become nothing but a small regret, a friend like the others, whose choices he might be sorry for, but wouldn't suffer from.

And Naruto had jumped into Hinata's arms and the peace they offered like a man dying of thirst jumps into a lake.

He had done everything for her.

He owed her, after all.

She had loved him so much, for so long.

Even Neji had died so they could be together.

So he made himself into the man she wanted, that she could be proud of.

All this Naruto remembered, watching Sasuke running from him, as he crouched down in exhaustion in his dream.

Away.

On his own two feet, or pushed by Naruto himself, but

Always away.

And then suddenly, in his dream, Naruto heard Sasuke scream.

And he pulled himself up and summoned his strength to run again.

For that scream tore him inside, and pulled him.

It yanked on his guts like nothing else.

Not his friends.

Not his village.

Not his wife.

Not his own children.

He ran, and ran, yelling back.

And he woke up yelling, clutching the crying newborn to his chest.

He panted, and looked down at the child.

His Menma, and his Menma.

Broken, disfigured, incomplete Menma.

Like them.

What is a brain without a heart?

A computer, he thought.

A stupid computer.

Without the ability to _understand_.

To care.

What is a heart without a brain?

It is feeling without restraint.

Pain.

Chaos.

_Destruction_.

He stood up, cradling the child, and went to his window, and saw what his brain without heart had built, under the rising sun, as if for the first time.

"Oh gods… what have I done?"

* * *

Sasuke woke up to the mother of all hangovers, and groaned, sitting up.

Somehow, he had passed out at the bottom of the waterfall, near the place where Sakura had found them on that fateful day.

Remembering Sakura brought the other memories back, and he cringed.

No future.

But then, if he had no future, he had no need of this travesty of a life anymore.

He was finally, finally free from all his obligations.

The obligations his brother had pushed on him, that the fucking scumbag piece of shit that called himself his one and only friend (the irony) had taken from him.

And the obligations that the stupid pink-haired bitch had pushed onto him, that clan law now freed him from.

He had to lose every single fucking hope he ever had, but now, now, finally, he was free.

He could end it all.

But before that… he would take back the only thing that was still his, the only thing he might even share, but was, as long as he lived, his own to dispose of.

He stood up and made his way into the city.

* * *

Little Menma had woken up scared of being squashed, but his biggie had hugged him, and fed him, and changed him, and now he was back in his little orange pouch, so it was all ok.

It was a good pouch too, much better than the other one where he had stayed before. The other pouch had been dark, and cold, and bitter. This one was light and fluffy, and tasted yummy, wrapping him and warming him just right.

Sometimes it poked him, too, and breathed on his neck, and the sniffing felt good. The first time it happened, Menma had been startled, but the orange shushed and nuzzled him to sleep again, and he got used to it.

Naruto, completely oblivious to what happened to the child, was currently checking the pile of accountancy books perilously balanced on his desk, getting more desperate by the minute.

Shikamaru entered the office at his usual time, and blinked in surprise at seeing his boss's disheveled state.

"Morning," he said, approaching the desk.

"Shikamaru!" Naruto yelled, and grabbed the man's arm.

The Nara genius felt an electric shock run through his body, and swayed. He blacked out for a second, and came to as if his consciousness was rushing up from deep sleep. He opened his eyes to see the Nanadaime hovering above him with a concerned look.

"You ok, man?" the blond said, and Shikamaru shook his head a bit.

"Yeah… no," he said, and rubbed his face with his hands. "Got something to drink that isn't booze?" he asked.

Naruto looked startled for a moment, and horrified the next, as he looked down on his desk and saw the large bottle of heavy liquor sitting on it, next to a pile of instant ramen cups.

He ran to the bedroom and opened the small fridge there, sighing in relief as he found a bottle of water, and returned to give it to his advisor.

Shikamaru opened the bottle and took a large gulp of the freezing liquid, feeling his head a little clearer.

"Ok… whoa, this was weird," he said, and looked up. "What the hell is that?" he asked, pointing at Naruto's midsection.

The blond looked up from the figures he was analyzing, and then back down to the bulge under his open shirt.

"Oh," he said. "Never mind him, Shika, I can explain it later. Are you alright now? Cause I need your brains for a second, dude, I… I was thinking it might only be Sasuke but now that I'm looking at these figures, shit…"

"Naruto, is that a baby sling under your clothes?" the Nara asked again.

"Shika, never mind the baby now, why the fuck do we owe our fucking asses to Rain?" Naruto asked back in an alarmed tone. "Where the fuck is our income from missions? What's this "War pensions" entry and why the fuck does it take almost all our budget?"

"Um, because you decided to pay war pensions to all the ninja clans that sent members to the fourth war like, the day after you were made Hokage? And you decided to build Konoha City with Rain's construction style, and adopt all their technologies, after you visited it with your father-in-law," Shikamaru answered calmly. "Are you alright? You know there are no more missions because most high-ranked clans and nobles all live in the high-rises right at our doorstep or here in the old village district, you designed the city to be built like this so there would be no need for long trips."

Naruto held his head in his hands. "What about the people who don't live in the city?" he asked, already fearing the answer.

"Who cares about a bunch of peasants?" Shikamaru answered automatically, but then froze, startled. "What the fuck did I just say?"

"Shikamaru, I think… no, I _**know**_ I did something really, _really_ stupid," Naruto said with a guilty look.

* * *

The high rise loomed over the street, and Sasuke entered it quietly, trying to keep his hatred of the place unseen. He checked out his weapons at the entry desk and stated his destination before being given a card to access the elevators.

All this new era bullshit grated on his nerves, but it was necessary to conduct legal business in Konoha City, so the Uchiha did his best to keep his cool in the small contraption, even though he felt the constrictive space closing in on him. Another brilliant idea of His Piece of Shitness, Uzumaki Naruto, as if any ninja worth his salt couldn't just run up the side of the damn building.

He breathed out in relief as the elevator opened its doors on the fortieth floor, and moved to the small desk where a bored-looking civilian girl in garish make-up stood to greet clients.

"I'm here to speak with Nara Suzaku," Sasuke announced, and moved to awkwardly sit in the waiting room at the receptionist's request.

At least it was early enough that he was the only client waiting. Dealing with these soft, disgustingly weak people was bad, but having to suffer their ill-concealed haughty looks was insufferable.

At least his lawyer - he cringed inwardly at the term - had been a ninja once, he mused as he was shown into the man's office.

Nara Suzaku bowed to him and motioned towards one of the leather chairs before taking his seat behind his mahogany desk.

"No need for useless pleasantries," the Uchiha interrupted, as the former ninja opened his mouth. "I take it that clan law is still effective in Konoha?" he asked, and the lawyer nodded.

"Good. In light of recent developments I want my marriage to Haruno Sakura dissolved, and her name removed from my clan's registry. She is to be strapped of the Uchiha name as well," he stated in a calm, cold voice.

The lawyer's eyes widened, and he took a deep breath before opening the fat file in front of him.

"I take it the birth didn't produce the best result?" he asked, as he browsed through the documents, pulling some out of the file.

"Exactly. The child was born defective. Uchiha clan law clearly states it as reason for immediate annulment," Sasuke said.

The lawyer hummed, and picked up the phone. "Excuse-me a second, please," he asked while dialing. "Yes, I am the legal representative of the Uchiha clan, can you give me the status of Uchiha Sakura and her newborn, please?" he asked, and waited a couple of minutes.

"Oh. Thank you very much," he said, before hanging up and turning to his client. "Hospital files state that the child died shortly after birth, and your wife is still recuperating. Would you prefer to proceed after she has been released?" he asked.

Sasuke's eyes widened a small fraction. So the child had not survived. All for the better then.

"No. Uchiha clan law states the procedures do not depend on the partner born out of the clan. There is no need to wait," he stated.

Nara nodded. "Very well, then. There is only the matter of Uchiha Salad. I take it you'll have custody?" he asked, taking notes on a small computer.

"No," the Uchiha said. As if he had use for the girl!

The lawyer gave him a serious look. "General clan law supersedes the private clan laws, and it dictates that clan names can only be withdrawn from parents when the parent with blood relations to the clan takes custody of children produced during the marriage. Unless, of course, paternity is questioned," he said in a questioning tone.

Sasuke scowled. If only. Besides his blood, he had no ties to the girl whatsoever. Even her name had been Sakura's sole decision.

"That is not the case," he said, and took a deep breath. "I'll have custody then."

"About the assets acquired after the marriage?" Suzaku asked.

"No further assets were acquired after the marriage. She has her own pension," Sasuke's left eye twitched at the word that described the biggest humiliation imposed to ninja after the war in his opinion, "and the child will have all her expenses paid by me, as it has always been."

Nara nodded again, and spent a few minutes writing, before pulling the phone receiver and dialing a number. "Get me a messenger," he asked, and hung up, before reaching for the sheets of paper coming out of a printer on a side table.

"I will need your signature in all these copies, please," he said after signing himself and pushing the papers towards Sasuke, who signed and tried to affix his chakra in the papers, out of habit, scowling when it didn't stick. Of course, in this "new era", chakra had become obsolete even as a means to identify people.

"These copies are yours, one as official proof of your custody, which you should carry with you, the other to be presented when you collect your daughter. The other copies will be sent by messenger to be archived at the Hokage Tower, the Registry office, and to be presented to your ex-spouse in case she would want to contest the annulment in court," he said, and raised a hand before Sasuke could say anything, "which considering the situation, would be quickly refused," he said while folding the copies and putting them in two envelopes, before closing them.

Sasuke nodded and picked up the envelopes, pointedly ignoring the hand extended to him before leaving the office.

Half an hour later, he arrived at the house he had set up for Sakura to live in the otherwise barren Uchiha district, and drew his katana as he felt faint chakra signatures inside.

"Uchiha-san!" Sakura's father shouted, raising a hand when the Uchiha came in.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Sasuke growled.

"We… we came in to get Salad's things. Sakura asked us to take her in," Sakura's mother said as she left the child's room, carrying a bag. The little girl could be seen hugging her grandmother's leg and giving him a frightened look.

Sasuke sheathed his sword and pulled out an envelope from the inner pocket in his black cloak, handing it to Sakura's father. "I'm taking the girl with me. Salad, get your travel pack and weapons, you won't need anything else," he said, looking pointedly at the child.

Sakura's father hurriedly opened the envelope and read the document within, swallowing dry as he finished reading, then he nodded.

"As little regard as I have for you, Uchiha-san, I agree with these terms." he said.

"But Salad!" Sakura's mother exclaimed in shock, hugging her granddaughter.

"She will be better with her father than with us, woman. And… it's about time this… this horrible mistake got corrected," he said, giving the child a sad look. "At least now our daughter will have to let go and start living her own life." He moved in front of his granddaughter and crouched to face her. "Salad, dear, you're going with your Papa now. Be a good girl, ok? And never forget, grandpa and grandma love you very, very much," he said, hugging her together with his wife.

Salad's eyes were brimming with tears when they separated. "Why?" she asked softly. "You don't want me anymore too?"

"Of course we want you, honey," Granma answered, as Granpa hugged her again. "But it's better for you if you go with your Papa, ok? He'll take care of you, and you'll learn so much, he's a brave war hero, ne?" Granma gave her a huge smile, but Salad didn't feel the least convinced. "Write us telling of your adventures, ok?"

Salad somberly nodded, and they left the house after bowing to Papa.

"Get your things, we're leaving," Sasuke said cooly, and left the house. Salad quickly packed her small travel backpack with her few scrolls, clothes, and, after some consideration, her small practice wooden shuriken and kunai. Not that she was any good with them, her glasses always slipped from her face when she exercised, but Papa had ordered to pack her weapons, and she wasn't about to disobey him.

She left the house and stood beside him, and cringed when Papa set fire to the house with a Gōkakyū no Jutsu, but she said nothing, only taking a silent, teary look behind to the fiery ruins of her life as she followed him.

* * *

"So what you're saying is that you did all this stupid crap because you drove Sasuke away from you?" Shikamaru asked while frowning.

"Yes. I drove him away and the moment I finished breaking my bond with him I… I went completely stupid. I mean, look at all this!" Naruto exclaimed, making a sweeping motion with his arm towards the window. "Somehow our chakra bond goes way deeper than I thought, it's like we can't function as normal people when we're apart. My brain stopped working as it should, and his body did too. Hence what happened to him," Naruto said in a shaky voice, looking down and touching the baby nestled against his skin.

Shikamaru rested his arms on his knees and held his hands together to think. Naruto's theory seemed farfetched, except for the physical proof in his arms. Neither Sakura's lineage nor Sasuke's had ever produced kids with abnormalities. Any abnormalities. It was strange enough that their firstborn had congenital defects that affected her eyesight and chakra abilities - Shikadai every once in a while commented on the Uchiha girl's difficulties at the Academy - and this baby's condition was unheard of in any ninja clan. Shikamaru himself had felt revolted by the child's aberrant features.

"That doesn't explain how you realized something was wrong now, in the first place. Or, damn, how I didn't. I mean, I don't have any bond with you, and I've been by your side all these years, but before today I thought everything was just peachy. How can something between you and Uchiha affect me?" Shikamaru said.

Naruto rested his back against his chair, and Shikamaru noticed he absentmindedly stroked the child's hair as he thought. In a much more affectionate manner as he used to show around his own children, no less. The advisor filed the information in the back of his mind for later scrutiny.

"All I remember is that everything was normal before Menma was born. Scratch that, it was normal before I decided to take him," Naruto said with a faraway look. "When… when I looked at him and touched him, I felt… I felt this rush of emotion, like when Bolt and Himawari were born, but… stronger, because he's just like me, you know. I identified with him, he… he's much the same as I was, in a way that my own kids never were," he blushed in shame at his confession, and sighed deeply.

"And then when I took him home, I went the whole way afraid that Hinata would reject him. Deep down, I knew she would, Tsunade baa-chan had already warned me, because of how he looks… but I hoped like hell she wouldn't, because the longer I spent with him, the less I could give him up. And then she did, and shit, I kinda understand why, but it was like something physically _broke_ in me, ya know? When I looked at her, I didn't even recognize her, it was like she was a totally different person, like a stranger, not the woman I fell in love with," he continued, "and then I looked down at him, and I knew, I knew if she couldn't open her heart to him, then what she felt for me wasn't because she understood me or really wanted who I am at all. Because even though he looks like a monster on the outside, I _**am**_ a monster on the inside…" he raised teary eyes. "If she can't see we're the same, then… then she can't see the real me at all. Then I came back here, and when I slept, I had the dream I told you about."

Shikamaru listened quietly, and studied the information his Hokage had given him for a long time.

Meanwhile, Naruto got up and went quietly to the room, excusing himself to take care of the baby's needs. Shikamaru took notice that the baby didn't cry once while they talked, and remembered that the child had quickly turned his little face towards the blond's chest when Naruto had exposed it.

"Naruto, I'd like Ino to take a look at him," he stated when the Nanadaime came back to the office, and raised a conciliatory hand when the man clutched the child closer in a protective manner. "You know you can trust her. And her abilities can tell if your theory is right. It's better to be sure before you decide to do something drastic. Let her confirm your fears, or not, before you decide to do anything. If you are right, then I'll back you up in any decision you make."

Naruto took a deep, shaky breath. "Fine. But go get her yourself. I… I don't want anyone else involved in this," he ordered, and Shikamaru nodded, before getting up and bowing to take his leave.

* * *

Shikamaru went straight to the Yamanaka's flower shop, and found Ino and Sai inside, arguing about flower placement.

"Damn it Sai people will WANT the damn roses all together, it's easier to make a multicolored rose bouquet that way!" Ino shouted, and shoved her husband aside.

"No, that is a completely stupid placement, you can't appreciate the aesthetics unless the flowers are mixed together! Stop fucking up my work, damn woman!" Sai yelled back, and Ino upended a bucket of water on his head.

"That's for fucking up MY work, you anal-retentive idiot!" Ino growled, before noticing her former teammate slouching against the shop's door frame. "Morning, Shika! The flowers for the festival are ready to go to the Tower, did you need anything else?" she asked, smiling.

Shikamaru sighed. He had hoped to get his former teammate alone, but then, at least Naruto trusted Sai. In the ten years since he started dating Ino, Sai had become her shadow, there was no way he'd get rid of him without raising suspicion.

"Na… I need you up at the Tower. It's urgent business, Ino," he said, straightening up.

"Um, can't it wait until later? We're about to open, today is one of the best days for sales, you know," she argued, and he shook his head.

"I'm afraid it's an emergency. Shouldn't take too long, though, maybe Sai could…" he started, but sighed again at Ino's glare. "Troublesome. Let's go, then," he conceded, and waited outside as the couple took off their aprons and closed the shop to follow him.

* * *

"Morning, Dickless!" Sai greeted as they entered the Hokage's office. Said Hokage stood looking out the window with his back turned to them.

"Shikamaru, what the fuck!" Naruto growled in fury, without turning to them.

"Sorry. Couldn't bring her alone without causing a fuss," Shikamaru said, locking the doors.

Ino approached the blond cautiously, feeling the strange vibe coming from him. "Naruto?" she asked, and reached for his arm, squealing when he grabbed her wrist before she could touch him.

The protective fury of Naruto's chakra made her instinctively withdraw into her own mind, and inside she felt her soul falling through an abyss of memories and feelings. She screamed and looked back, to see the walls of memories cracking all around her, as she hit what she saw as purplish webs, but recognized as layers of chakra, woven into the core of her brain's center of emotions in a complicated pattern. Her screams turned into outraged shrieks as her own emotions broke from the web, and she crashed in the bottom of her self.

She stood in the deepest part of her own ego, filling with righteous rage as she faced the truth. She closed her eyes, and snarled deeply as she let herself resurface.

"Genjutsu!" she growled while opening her eyes, and the three men around her stepped back in fright at the murderous intent in her glare.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N**: Ty all so much for your reviews, everyone! Keep them coming, I do answer them and no, I don't bite.

**kuu: **:D Ain't saying nuffin', it's still too early :D

**lugege**: Nope, my parents aren't poor, my father died over 20 years ago and my mom has a nice pension.

**Darksecrets11**: Thanks so much for your support, I really appreciate it :D

I hope you all like this chapter, yes, things might seem confusing still but there are reasons for it that will be slowly explained as the story goes on. Don't forget, if there's anything you want me to clarify (that doesn't have to do with how the story ends, of course), send me a review, I'll answer it asap.

* * *

Ino was shaking with anger when she turned towards the other people in the Hokage's office, but she reigned on her rage. This was too important to be addressed without care.

"Sai, sit down and stay quiet," she ordered, and turned to Naruto. "You, don't come close to him. I have to make sure I'm right," she said, and turned to Sai, the both of them going deathly quiet and rigid.

Naruto and Shikamaru waited over an hour for them to move again, Shikamaru taking the opportunity to call home from his own office, leaving Naruto to watch over the couple.

He pulled his phone from his pocket with a grimace, and ran a hand over his face, as he remembered what he had put Temari through the years after their marriage. No wonder the woman was never happy… and even less wonder that his own mother had simply cut ties with him, claiming him to be a disappointment, a shameful son, a blemish on the Nara clan…

"Nara," a child's voice answered the phone on the third ring.

"Hey kid, how's everything at home? Can you call your mom for me?" Shikamaru asked, and winced as Shikadai screamed for Temari.

"Yeah," Temari answered the phone with a tired, defeated voice that made Shikamaru dry-swallow in shame.

"Hi," he started, for once without words.

Temari sighed. "Shikamaru, is there anything you want me to do? Because if there isn't, I'm busy."

"Uh, wait. I..." he swallowed again. "Look, something important came up here and… I don't know what time I'll get to be home, but can you get the kid and come to the tower? Grab your travel bags too."

"What's wrong?"

"I'll tell you when you get here. Just please come quick, and make it quiet."

Shikamaru closed the phone and took a deep breath.

"So, what is it?" he asked, after closing the door to the Hokage's office, seeing that Ino had apparently finished up with Sai, who was currently passed out on the bed in the adjacent room.

Naruto had lowered his chair so only the top of his body would show behind the desk.

"You gonna have to keep an open mind while I explain this, it's really weird, and… I never heard of it being possible, but after seeing it in place on Sai's mind, I think I can figure out how it works, partly," Ino said, and pulled a sheet of paper and a bunch of colored pencils, motioning for Shikamaru to come closer to the desk.

"Ok. Here's the thing I saw in my mind," she said, drawing a scheme on the paper with a black pencil. "This is how I see the synapses that intertwine memories, these are the memories themselves. In order for us to have complex memories, like situations and context, we need these synapses to lock several little separate memories, images, sounds, smells, emotions, and tactile impressions. Now, here," she pulled up a red pencil and began drawing a complex web pattern, "are synapses that link memories from different events and these little boxes in green, are false emotional memories.

"What happens in a regular genjutsu is that we're thrown into a dream built by images, sounds and events created in the caster's mind, but our reactions to it are still our own. That is why we can get out of it, and that actually answers the question of why Naruto is so weak to genjutsu - he's never been in absolute conscious control of himself due to sharing his mind with Kurama since he was born, so he and Kurama tend to react to things poorly when their minds are alone." She looked at Naruto, waiting for the shoe to drop.

Sure enough, after half a minute, his eyes widened. "Shit, you're right. Guess I never realized that," he said.

She nodded. "Now this thing is way more complex than that. It's got both fake memories and fake links between true memories that build fake complex memories at a very deep cognitive level. It basically plants suggestions that change who we actually are, how we see reality and interact with it, because what makes our personalities is the sum of what we've experienced through life, and those experiences are stored into our minds as memories, that we constantly use to compare events we live to understand what is going on and how we should react to them."

"So what you're saying is that somebody found a way to turn people into something they're not through genjutsu? Like hypnosis or something?" Naruto asked with wide eyes.

"It's something like hypnosis but way more complex than that. It doesn't plant suggestions directly, but it changes the context of the real memories that build who you are, and insert small fragments of memories along with the real ones in a very subtle way. So subtle, your brain can't differentiate what's real and what's not, so you can theoretically spend the rest of your life being what the caster wanted you to be without even noticing," Ino said, and looked sadly in the direction of the room where Sai was sleeping. "In our case, I mean, me and Sai… it made him believe we should get married because he saved me from that rape attempt and I thanked him, and it also shaped how we behaved with each other and everyone else for… I don't know, over ten years, at least. And from what I saw on his mind, the jutsu was cast on him originally, I probably fell under its effects when we joined minds at our wedding," she sighed. "After I analyzed his mind I tried to break the jutsu, but couldn't, so I asked Naruto to touch him… and when Naruto did, his chakra seeped into him just like it did with me, and that broke the jutsu."

Shikamaru looked at Naruto, then at her again. "So you're saying that Sai didn't marry you because he was in love with you, but because he was under a jutsu? And then you got caught in that jutsu as well?" he asked, and she nodded. "Why did you want to break it then?" he asked again, frowning.

Ino rubbed her face with her hand, discreetly wiping her eyes in the process. "Shikamaru, unlike what you men might think not _all_ women are uncaring of men's feelings or just interested in the status of being married to some man. I've liked Sai for a long time, and yes I was happy that he married me, but you know what, I don't want to be married to a puppet, and I don't want to be a puppet. What has been done to him… is horrible beyond words," she said, and swallowed a sob. "And what it's done to _me_ is even worse! What kind of woman would I be if I were content to have a man be _forced_ to marry me regardless of his true feelings?

"And there's more," she continued. "Because of this damn jutsu I've spent a third of my life sitting on my fat ass at home or at the shop, without doing anything to honor my dad's work, when he passed that responsibility to _me_! I had over a decade of my life stolen from me!"

"We all did, not just you," Naruto said after a while, in which he let Ino's words sink in and felt the weight of his responsibility over the welfare of his people yet again. "Though I have done my own share without being controlled by anything for this to have happened. If I hadn't driven Sasuke away in fear of agreeing with him and ending up changing the system so much I wouldn't become Hokage… if I hadn't put my stupid selfish desire to keep the status I gained in the war, this wouldn't have happened, because Sasuke wouldn't fucking let me screw up the way I did."

"You know what, I don't know how we fell into that jutsu, but I'll bet I know when," Shikamaru said after musing for a few minutes. "Remember when we were in that mission to rescue Hanabi, that problem with the moon guy?"

Naruto nodded.

"Remember we fell in a genjutsu back then? That genjutsu made us dream about our childhood, didn't it? What if this jutsu was embedded in that, as a way to trap Hinata?"

"Sounds like it's possible, but how do we check it? I mean, dude, this is way too precise a mind control jutsu and honestly, if it was meant to happen back then we wouldn't have been able to rescue Hinata, she wouldn't have wanted to return with us," Naruto reasoned.

"Hmmmm… we could get you to touch Sakura and Hinata to see if they'll respond the same way we did, that could work," Ino said.

"I'm not meeting Sakura myself," Naruto said, putting his hands protectively over his body.

"Why? Your chakra is the cure for this!" Ino asked, and Naruto sighed.

"Look… the only reason I got out of this jutsu you're talking about is… oh, what the hell," Naruto huffed, and pushed his chair back, opening his robe a bit.

Ino's eyes went as wide as saucers. "Is that a _baby_? Holy shit, Naruto, whose is it?" she asked, coming closer.

"It's Sasuke and Sakura's. I think it's his chakra that got me out of this jutsu… and please don't say a word about this, they think he's dead," he said. "He was born with… an abnormality, and they freaked out and wanted to kill him, and long story short, I adopted him but nobody can know he's theirs."

Ino nodded. Infanticide was a common practice amongst the traditional clans when defective children were born. Hers was not all that different, although her father had changed many things when he became the head of the Yamanaka. But sometimes Ino still caught herself thinking about her little cousin that she didn't even get to meet when she was five. "I won't tell anyone, don't worry about it. Poor thing. You could send a clone, though," she said.

Naruto stood up and made the seals to summon a clone, but as he tried pulling on his chakra, he felt a sharp pain on his chest, and doubled forward with a cry.

"Don't even think about it," he heard Kurama growl. "Your body is eating up the kid's chakra, it's all I can do to give him enough to stay alive and grow faster so he'll be able to produce enough for the both of you."

"What?" Naruto screamed, and retreated into his mind to look at the fox. Sure enough, it was holding the child in his arms, and a thin purple string of chakra was connecting Naruto to the baby.

"Once you held the child your body began sucking off its yin energy to repair the damage the break of the bonding between you and his father caused; as soon as I noticed I decided to give him our combined chakra to keep him alive. His body is preparing for a growth spurt with the extra chakra I'm giving it, if I didn't intervene he wouldn't survive for much longer. And if you try to cast jutsu, you'll kill him," Kurama explained.

"Holy shit! I… I didn't know! I'll give him to Tsunade or something," Naruto said.

"Can't, your body has attuned to his to replace the energy bond you had with his father. If you break the bond you'll be seriously damaged, _unhealable_ damage. Only by rebuilding the bond you had with the Uchiha, or by hanging on to this kid until he's big enough to produce enough chakra to balance the amount you're taking from him, you'd be able to stay safely apart. With his abnormalities, I don't even know if he'll ever be able to do that. He is a tough little thing, though," the fox said, and nuzzled the child affectionately.

"He's not Sasuke, though. He's also Sakura's child… how can he have the same chakra as his father?" Naruto asked, looking down at the baby.

"I don't know, kid. All I do know is that his chakra is exactly the same as his father's. The bonding wouldn't have happened successfully if it wasn't."

Naruto nodded, and left his subconscious.

"Bad news," he said. "Can't use chakra or the baby will get hurt," he groaned, feeling suddenly weak.

"Well, that means we can't get Sakura off the genjutsu, but how about Hinata? You said she knows of the child," Shikamaru said, and Naruto nodded.

"Ino, can you check on her first, though? I'll… deal with this later, I really don't feel so good right now," Naruto asked, and closed his eyes.

Ino took a look at his pale, rugged face and nodded. "Sure. Shikamaru, come help me get Sleeping Beauty home, gods know I don't want to be around when he wakes up, but Naruto should rest."

* * *

Salad had never been to Konoha City, and her first impression was the same she had whenever she saw the high rises from her village: it was the strangest place in the world.

She and her Papa had been walking nonstop ever since leaving home. They had left the village proper through the staircase in Hokage Mountain, passed the rich noble district, with its impeccably dressed, white-gloved guards and pristine streets, the less noble middle-class neighborhood where the civilians and ninja that worked for the higher-ups and companies lived, and reached the part where the poor people, ninja and civilian alike, dwelled right alongside the industrial district.

Salad scrunched her nose at the smell of trash and smoke and funky food, and nearly jumped at the amount of cockroaches and rats that seemed to lurk at every dank corner.

Little kids in ragged clothing played soccer in the middle of the street, and the low, rickety buildings all had clothes hanging off the windows, or some tired, hopeless-looking adult smoking while looking out.

Three times Salad's Papa stopped, one in a building, another in a dirty alley, a third in a derelict shop, picking up envelopes from strange people. He never introduced them to Salad, or said anything much besides scolding her if she fell behind, so Salad almost jumped when he turned around a corner and, after entering a tiny ramen stall, told her to sit down next to him.

" 'Sup?" a rugged-looking middle-aged woman asked, giving a curious glance in Salad's direction, and Sasuke nodded to her in greeting.

"Traveling with extra luggage. Two of the usual," he said, handing her two of the envelopes he had gathered, and opening the third, and smallest.

_'Dear Mother,_

_Remember that old song, "Still haven't found what I'm looking for"? _

_I've been singing that a lot, along with "I shot the Sheriff"._

_And I didn't shoot the Deputy. _

_Weather has been very wet around here, and the __Ba humbugi__ are well fed. _

_On other news, the __Gelae belae__ doesn't seem to notice, but the __Gelae baen__ is all over the place, be careful not to run into any, word is that it has a mean bite. _

_By the way did you know __Gelae baen__ is the favorite food of __Oedipina complex__? Damn things are getting hungrier as they grow too, soon we'll be seeing them everywhere._

_Unfortunately, __Hebejeebie sp.__ doesn't extend its protective foliage very long, being so delicate and all that jazz, so yeah. _

_Hope this finds you well, _

_Your loving son, _

_C. Darwin'_

Sasuke frowned at the news - or lack of - from Suigetsu. His old Taka teammate had been spying on Konoha for years, especially focusing on Naruto ever since he became Hokage, but no matter how much he snooped, he couldn't pin anything on the idiot, or on Shikamaru.

That was damn worrying, since Sasuke's web of spies had unearthed enough dirt to bury all the other Kage and pretty much all the clan heads, including the new Konoha Council. The criminal organization that had taken over Amegakure had spread its criminal tentacles deep into the political structure of the shinobi system, in the same way that hidden village's technology had permeated urban life in the world's biggest city.

It was no wonder at all that "peace" reigned everywhere: the main clans were all fat and useless, living on government pensions and bribes, and pretty much the entire underworld had pledged allegiance to the "Yakuza" (a name chosen for the irony that it was a much luckier endeavor than the previous, more auspiciously named ones such as Akatsuki), leaving only the small fry to bother the poor - the rich civilians and businesses all religiously paid their "protection" fees to the organization.

Suigetsu's letter, correctly decoded, read:

_Still haven't found anything on Naruto_ (the Sheriff) _or Shikamaru_ (the Deputy).

_Bribes_ (from Rain) _have been plentiful, and the New Council_ (_Ba humbugi_) _has gotten yet richer_ (this information was pretty much pro forma, since October was the year's most profitable month for drug trafficking, due to the many festivals held in Konoha and the amount of rich visitors coming to the city for the festivities, especially the "Peace Festival" on the tenth of the month).

The only mildly different and possibly interesting bit of information was:

_Naruto_ (_Gelae belae_; together with his wife Hinata as _Gelae rol_, their son Bolt as _Gelae baen_ and their daughter Himawari as _Gelae fish_ they were the "Jelly family", named so by Suigetsu because of, as the spy ironically said, "its firm and stable structure") _doesn't seem to know, but Bolt spends time looking for trouble in the City, so be careful not to run into him. Salad _(_Oedipina complex_, for the girl often asked Sakura about her father) _has been following him around, and Sakura_ (_Hebejeebie sp_. because, according to Suigetsu, she creeped him out) _doesn't monitor her because of the pregnancy, so your kid might get in trouble soon. _

Well, at least now that there was no pregnancy anymore, his poor excuse for a marriage was over and he had custody of the girl, that was one problem he didn't have anymore.

However…

"Ayame, have you seen any jelly beans around lately?" Sasuke asked when the woman served him his ramen, and then muttered "Itadakimasu" under his breath, before breaking his chopsticks apart, when he saw another customer approach the stall.

He was about to eat when he noticed the lack of sound beside him, and looked down.

Salad was looking at the food curiously, and shyly raised her head to look at him.

Salad's Mama never made ramen at home, and never, ever ate it or let Salad have any in the few occasions when they ate out. The only time Salad had asked why, Salad's Mama had said "Papa doesn't like it," and that had been it.

So it was with understandable curiosity that Salad watched her Papa order ramen. And in such a dingy little place, too! She looked down at her chopsticks. The wrapping had the same name as in the faded banner in the corner: Ichiraku Ramen.

"Eat," Salad's Papa commanded quietly, and Salad broke her chopsticks after politely thanking for the food, but only dared pick up the first bite after she saw the man begin eating.

The dish was the best thing Salad had ever eaten in her life, much, much better than the tomato-paste loaded dishes Mama cooked at home - she had said that Papa loved tomatoes, and tomato paste was concentrated tomatoes, so obviously tomato paste made everything tasty for Papa and that was why Mama put tomato paste on everything (even onigiri). Mama had also told her that she had given Salad her name so that when her brother was born he'd be called Tomato, and together they'd be Papa's favorite dish.

Salad hated tomatoes with a passion, especially because they gave her cold sores. And tomato soup gave her stomachaches. Which meant Salad had both very often.

She watched in wonder with the corner of her eye as her Papa ate heartily.

The other customer left after paying for his take-out. Sasuke finished his meal and lighted a cigarette.

"I haven't, but Pops said he saw one at the Pit last week," Ayame said. "Oh, and by the way," she said, and rummaged in the stall for a minute, before handing him a small plastic bag, "these are for you."

Sasuke picked the bag with a fleeting smirk, and laid it on the counter before pulling an individually packed senbei from it and wordlessly handing it to Salad, who looked at it curiously.

"Your grandaunt used to make the best senbei in the Fire Country," Ayame told the girl. "That's one of has sesame seed. Try it."

Salad hurriedly finished her ramen, and opened the small package, fishing out the rice cracker. She looked at it closely before biting it, and then her eyebrows raised.

Mama had never made senbei, but Salad had eaten the industrialized version that sold in the supermarket.

This one was way, way better.

"Did you like it?" Ayame asked, and Salad nodded with a small smile.

"Might make a real Uchiha out of her yet," the stall owner winked at Sasuke. "You guys going on a bird-watching trip soon?"

"Yes, and we'll need bento for the trip, will be picking it up before we leave. Thanks for the food, Ayame. Tell your dad I said hi," the Uchiha said, and they left.

* * *

**A/N**:

Small glossary of aliases and names used in this chapter:

_Ba humbugi_: a species of endodontoid snail from Mba island, Fiji.

_Gelae baen, Gelae belae, Gelae donut, Gelae fish_, and _Gelae rol_: same genus (_Gelae_), different species of fungus beetles.

_Hebejeebie_ _sp._ (Plantaginaceae): a member of the _Hebe_ complex; it has caused taxonomists anxiety because its classification is problematic. [_Botanical Society of Otago Newsletter_ 36:10-13]

_Oedipina complex_: a species of lungless salamander

Yakuza: ya-ku-za, 8-9-3, is a losing hand in Oicho-Kabu, a form of blackjack.

On another note, The Uchiha Senbei (うちはせんべい) was a shop affiliated with the Uchiha clan. The closely guarded secret recipe of the senbei gave the shop its fame. It was owned by Uchiha Teyaki and his wife Uruchi, until they both were killed by Itachi. The shop was abandoned after its owners' deaths. Sasuke would sometimes come here after his day at the Academy to get food. The explanation as to how, in this story, the Ichiraku family got the recipe will be given in the next chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N**: Good news, everyone! New chapter out :D

_First things first_:

To Guest: Thank you so much for your review. Yeah apparently the rescue thing is true, urgh.

To the people who have signed in to review: check your inboxes :D

To the people who are reading but aren't reviewing: **please** tell me what you think of this story? Pretty please with lots of sugar? I honestly, DESPERATELY need the feedback, help a poor fledgling writer out, waaaaaaaaaa *cries*

Oh, two things I have to say: one, this story has a slower pace than my previous ones, it's because of the complexity of the themes dealt with here. Two, I have had a couple reviewers complain about the size of monologue paragraphs in The End and the same long speeches happen in this fic, but there is a reason for me to keep them as they are: they are supposed to be deep, heartfelt confessions, and considering that in real life when people give those they don't stop in the middle and go do something else to then come back later and continue, but instead keep going until everything is clear to the listeners, I've kept them that way in writing. I do know that some people have issues with long written monologues, but please bear with it, as breaking them apart would disrupt the emotional flow of the narrative at those moments.

**Beta'd** by the fantastic **Lohrendrell**

Ok, now on with the show :D

* * *

Shikamaru returned to the Hokage Tower after leaving Ino and Sai back at their home to find Naruto sleeping curled up around the Uchiha baby and his own family waiting for him in his office.

He sighed and pulled up his cell phone, frowning at the time. It was near dinner time already, the late autumn overcast day already giving way to night. Good thing he had told Ino to check on Hinata the next day, as far as he could see Naruto was dead to the world and wouldn't be able to process more information until the next morning.

He then left the Hokage office while giving orders to the staff to leave some dinner for Naruto at the Hokage's desk without disturbing him.

"Why the hell did you tell us to get here with so much urgency if you were going to make us wait, Shikamaru?" Temari asked in her tired, resentful voice when he entered his own office, Shikadai lying on the couch with his head on her lap while reading some manga.

Shikamaru closed the door and rested his back on it while taking a good look at the woman he had admired and loved ever since he was a kid, treated like utter shit after their marriage, and who had already tried divorcing him twice, only giving up after much pleading from his mother, of all people.

He silently cursed himself for all the stupid shit he had ever done in the last twelve years, and sighed in preparation to what he was sure to be the most troublesome explanation he'd ever have to give, hoping like hell Temari could find in herself the will to ever forgive him.

He then pulled a chair to sit across from them, and began telling everything that had happened, without leaving out a single detail.

"Did your mother tell you to give us this tall tale?" Temari asked, clearly unimpressed. Shikadai simply gave him a side look, before returning to his reading.

"Come with me," Shikamaru asked, and led them to the Hokage's office, carefully locking the door before leading them to the annexed bedroom.

Temari's eyes widened when she saw the blond man in the bed, the disfigured child soundly asleep in his arms, their foreheads touching.

Shikamaru gave her a serious look, and she nodded, before the three of them went back to Shikamaru's own office.

"That must be why Uchiha-san took Salad away, then," Shikadai mentioned casually, before sitting back on the couch and opening his book again.

Shikamaru frowned at him. "Explain."

"He burned down their house and left with her, a girl from school told me when we went to a kombini on the way here. Said her mom asked what happened to Haruno-san and he said that Salad would be traveling with him from now on, apparently the Uchihas did break up."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and sighed. Trust Uchiha Sasuke to do something that dramatic and troublesome.

"Eh, another pain in the ass to deal with… well, at least now do you believe me, Temari?" he asked her, and she nodded. "Fine. Then please understand that I need you both out of Konoha while we try to find out exactly what the fuck happened and how to fix this mess before Rain fucks the Fire Country in the ass and the Daimyo roasts us over an open fire, that if he actually is able to grab us before everyone in Konoha gangs up on us. Shit, even Ichiraku will want a piece of Naruto if word of this gets out," he groaned.

"Ichiraku? Isn't that the ramen restaurant that Naruto used to go to? The owner sold it years ago to the corporation that controls the Fire Up! kombini chain, it's where we went to get Shikadai's manga," Temari said, and Shikamaru's face became as white as bleached paper.

"We are so fucked."

* * *

It was mid-morning the next day when the Harunos visited their daughter again.

"Good morning, dear, how are you feeling?" Sakura's mother asked her.

Sakura looked at her and smiled. "I'm feeling fine, Shizune-san said I should be discharged today. I can't wait to go home, there is so much to do! Sasuke-kun doesn't really know how to take care of himself," she giggled.

"Um… about that, Sakura-chan," her father began, and ran his hand through his hair, before handing her an envelope.

Sakura opened it and read the letter within, her smile fading.

"But… but I did everything right! I love him! I love him more than anything! He can't leave me!"

"We're sorry that it didn't work out, Sakura-chan, but it is really for the best. He wasn't good for you anyway. Now you can find a man that really loves you, that cherishes you," her mother said.

Sakura gave her parents an icy glare. "I will not allow this. Sasuke-kun is mine. I love him. I deserve to have him. He married me. I am Uchiha Sakura. You must have driven him away!"

Sakura's parents sighed and exchanged a weary look.

"We didn't do anything. He collected Salad while we were in your house getting her things and left the village already, Sakura-chan. Come home with us, there isn't anything left to do, clan law" her mother tried to reason.

"Clan law? Who cares about the law? He is mine!" Sakura interrupted her.

"Enough, Sakura. He does not want you anymore! Stop demeaning yourself!" her father exclaimed.

"What he wants is to be with me! I love him! That is all that matters! He is destined to be mine! We were fated to be together and I did everything for it to happen! I'm going home to wait for him, he'll come back! He always does!"

"There is no Uchiha home anymore, Sakura. He burned it down before he left." Her mother said.

Sakura's eyes widened in horror, her mind shocked by the revelation.

Sasuke-kun had burned their home down, taken Salad away, and her name off the Uchiha clan's family registry.

It was Sakura's worst nightmare. It couldn't be, not after all she had done to finally own him. She had made it certain that Sasuke-kun would be hers forever, how could this have happened? He wasn't allowed to reject her feelings like this! She loved him!

And she _would_ get him back, she thought with a glint in her eye.

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes weakly, to see a worried Tsunade sitting beside his bed.

"Finally, you stupid brat. I was this close to sending a search party after Uchiha," she said.

Naruto tried to say something, but only a dry croak left his throat, and his eyes widened in obvious alarm.

"Good thing the IV fluids worked," Shikamaru's voice was heard, while Tsunade pushed a cup with a straw for Naruto to drink. He took a sip and grimaced at the taste.

"Electrolytes," Tsunade explained. "You've been out for the entire week, we had to get Konohamaru to pose henged as you to avoid suspicion. Luckily Hinata bought the whole "too busy and distraught with the recent events" excuse he and Shikamaru gave her."

Naruto reflexively curled up tighter and looked down at little Menma, and gasped.

"Yeah, we think that's why you wouldn't wake up," Shikamaru commented.

The baby had grown exponentially while they slept. It was the size of a six month-old, at least, and blinked at him twice before squirming a bit and falling asleep again.

"Who…" Naruto started, and cleared his throat, "who's been taking care of him all this time?"

"No one. We can't touch him, the damn fox's chakra spikes out and burns anyone who tries to touch the kid. It's been living and growing off your and the beasts chakra all this time," Tsunade said. "Care to explain why the hell is your body sucking his out?"

Naruto groaned as his muscles protested when he turned on his back and stretched his unused limbs. "Kurama said his chakra is exactly the same as Sasuke's, and that my body is draining it from him to repair the damage my breaking of our bond did to my body," he explained in a weak voice. "Sasuke's body has been damaged from that too, I think that's why Menma was born like this. Apparently I'm a stupid asshole and Sasuke is just dumb, because both of us didn't realize that our chakra bond wouldn't break without fucking us up even after we lost the arms that had the Sage's seals."

"I've been meaning to ask that. How the hell did you break your bond in the first place?" Shikamaru asked.

Naruto turned his face to better look at him. "Right after Sasuke left on his first trip I started meditating to look for the place where I could feel his chakra in my head. After I found it, I started using nature energy on it, like sandpaper, until I couldn't feel it anymore," he said, and sighed. "I… I did it because I didn't want Kakashi or someone else to use Sasuke as an excuse to stop me from becoming Hokage. I knew that he was seen as a liability even after I swore he wouldn't be a problem anymore, so I… I abandoned him."

"Oh shit, Naruto," Tsunade said, and covered her eyes with her hands.

"Yeah. I told Sasuke I'd do it, when he… when he asked me to go traveling with him, so he knows. He wasn't happy about it, but he himself thought that the cycle of reincarnation was over because he admitted he lost, and I promised him that though Kakashi had decided to cover up the whole Uchiha clan issue I'd make it up to him when I was in office."

Shikamaru groaned. "And then that fucking jutsu happened and you forgot about it," he guessed.

Naruto shook his head. "No, I didn't. But I didn't do anything because by then I was married and I really, really wanted to fall in the clan heads' graces, what with them having had supported Kakashi's decision, so… I chickened out," he confessed, shameful tears brimming on his eyes. "I honestly can't throw that as an effect of that jutsu because even before the mission to retrieve Hanabi I was really, really set into doing whatever I could to avoid doing anything that could jeopardize my popularity as war hero and Hokage status. The truth is, ever since I defeated Pain and got that reception at the village, with everyone cheering me, I just couldn't let the village lose their trust in me anymore. And the village trusts the clan heads more than anything, they are the ones who built and ran the village. If I went against them on that they wouldn't want to let me do anything, and I really wanted to stop the wars most of all. So… in order to have that peace, I abandoned my first and most important living bond. The way that our peace was achieved with the financial support for foreign corporations, the debts I made to buy out the support of the other villages and the loss of military power due to the building of Konoha City… yeah, I can say I wasn't in my right mind when I did that, but the Uchiha clan still being blamed for all the wars is one hundred percent my. Fucking. Fault," he stated in a deeply regretful voice.

"I'm just not as amazing and nice and good and selfless as I wanted to be, and my own flaws ended up biting me in the ass. And now my lack of resolve is taking its toll on innocent Uchiha all over again, just like it happened with Hashirama. If I hadn't put what I wanted in front of finding a way to work with Sasuke, he wouldn't have been affected by the break in our bond, his kids would've been normal and this poor baby wouldn't have to go through this shit. And now I can't even break the bond my selfish body made with him because it might kill him, unless I can somehow rebuild the bond I had with Sasuke, and I have to do that in order for him to survive, because the same degeneration that made his kids have issues is still going on in his body," he finished, the tears running down his face as he ran his fingers through the baby's soft black hair.

"_Well, at least you got your head out of your ass now_," Kurama said. "_Stop whining and start working your way out of this mess. And by the way you should start getting some real food into your body, the kid's chakra system isn't developed enough that we can stop feeding him yet and we have no idea if his growth rate will keep as is, so you're stuck having to eat for two until Son Goku says the kid is in the clear. And yes, before you ask I did have to call the others, the idea of having this child's death hanging on my conscience when I can help him survive isn't appealing to me at all. We are now all feeding him and Son Goku is overseeing the process._"

Naruto lowered his head, and nodded. The fox was right, blaming himself would do nothing to solve his problems. First things first, though.

"Can I have some food please? Urgh…" he grimaced. "Healthy food."

* * *

Bolt was beyond used to not seeing his father, and the recent "extra work" excuse he apparently gave to not even go home for a week fit right into Bolt's schedule.

It was Friday afternoon, and the Uzumaki boy dropped his books on his bedroom desk, before opening the closet and withdrawing his Pit bag.

Tonight would be his first fight, and Bolt wanted everything to go right.

He passed through the kitchen on the way out, grabbing a couple of onigiri and a tomato before kissing his mother and leaving the Hyuuga compound.

Bolt's mom was easy as hell to fool, all it had taken was to play an edited tape of Shikadai's mother saying he'd be spending the weekend over through the Naras phone (the fact that they weren't home at the time made it all the easier still) for her to let him out without questions.

He made his way to the steps into Konoha City unmolested, and took a detour into one of the unused emergency bunkers in the Hokage Monument, where he started the transformation for his debut at the Pit.

He first pulled on the pair of dark brown contact lenses, blinking a while and making sure they were concealing his blue eyes, took off his shirt and pants and then began to work on the telltale whisker scars on his face, that showed the faint traces foreign chakra imbued into his father's sperm (for which he often had cursed the Scumbag; dude had to be such an egotistical bastard that he'd pass on the fucking fox's ugly whiskers, but not the link to use the stupid beast itself).

Thank gods for special ninja make-up, designed to withstand sweat and punches, though.

He pulled out the bottle of temporary hair dye next, and slipped a pair of plastic gloves to spread the transparent liquid on his hair. It was also a cosmetic designed for ninja, designed for long-term missions where the expenditure of chakra to keep a henge up could be noticed or was unwanted for any other reason, and would only stain hair, not skin.

He took a good look in the hand mirror he had brought, and nodded at the black-haired, dark-brown figure he saw in it. He now looked just like any ordinary Konoha city kid, if not for the fact he wasn't as malnourished as most were in the neighborhood where the Pit was located. However, fighters often ate better than regular kids, so that detail would go unnoticed.

He donned his black clothing and concealed the weapons he'd be using in his fight, and left his headband for last.

It was a simple black headband, ornamented simply with the kanji 功, meaning Isao, the alias he had chosen for himself.

Bolt thought that Isao was a much better name than "lightning", even if he did respect his late uncle Neji's memory (on the basis that since he had never laid his eyes on him, he couldn't form an opinion on the man, thank gods for small favors).

He quickly packed his bag again, and hid it in a dark corner. No one came into the hideouts anymore, but he didn't want to risk anyone finding out what he was doing. The Scumbag would probably give him over to his grandfather to be punished, and Bolt didn't want to again risk getting a curse seal.

It had been bad enough that his mother had been whipped in his place the one time Hiashi had gotten pissed up with him and tried to do it. The only thing that had swayed the old Hyuuga clan head was aunt Hanabi's statement that Bolt wasn't fit for that "honor", and so Hinata had offered to stand in for his punishment, since she was the Hyuuga responsible for his actions.

Of course, the Scumbag had no fucking idea that had happened because he was too damn busy talking to his shit friends on social media or playing shit Solitaire, or whatever the shit he did all day. It wasn't as if he had actual work to do, what with all the ninja getting lazy and fat on government pensions.

He took a deep breath and shook his head. Enough thinking for the week; time to get some enjoyment out of his miserable life.

* * *

Shikamaru and Ino were sitting across the Hokage at Naruto's dinner table in his personal quarters that same evening, watching both man and child eat in fascination.

Throughout the week that had become a sort of morbid entertainment for them. Even Tsunade was starting to get worried; if things kept going at this rhythm someone would surely realize something was up at the Hokage Tower.

Naruto had been a voracious eater when young, but there was just no normal explanation for the giant pot of chanko nabe he was putting in every six hours. It was just about enough to feed ten heavyweight sumo wrestlers, and that was just his food.

Little Menma's meals were even stranger, albeit much smaller. The baby had doubled in size that week, and both Shikamaru and Sai had been taking turns to watch over the kid while Naruto slept (which was most of the time between meals) and the kid was awake (which was about six hours a day).

That vigilance was extremely necessary due to the fact that Naruto had conveyed the necessity to stuff the kid with sweets, along with the highly nutritional, protein-rich gruel he was fed every three hours.

Apparently the Yonbi's assessment of the child's necessities was spot on, because not only was the two-week old baby playing, walking, talking and doing everything else a child a little over one year-old did, but his brain seemed to be developing at ramming speeds.

The child stuffed the last of his dango in his mouth, wiped his hands and face with a moist towel and gave Ino an expectant look.

She smiled at him. Even with his strange cyclops eye (which was set on an even more unsettling single eye-socket over the bridge of his nose and under a thin single eyebrow that didn't move beyond a tiny rise), the toddler had such an adorable, eager personality that he had won over everyone.

Taking care of him had also helped her and Sai get over the shock from coming out of the jutsu.

Sai had been understandably horrified after finally getting his brain back in functioning order after being pulled out of it, and neither he nor Ino were sure of what to do with their relationship; neither felt in love with the other.

However, they truly had enjoyed each others company in a friendly way during the last decade, and so had decided to leave the issue of what to do with their marriage for later, having only taken separate bedrooms by mutual agreement, since both felt a dire need of space to reacquaint with who they truly were.

Both Shikamaru and Naruto envied them greatly.

Naruto still wasn't able to even think about seeing Hinata again. Not only did he feel robbed of his own choices for the last decade, and completely out of not only love, but touch, with his wife and children, but he also felt guilty for Hinata. He had no idea how she'd react at being taken off the genjutsu and realizing she had been stuck in a loveless marriage with someone who didn't love her like Naruto thought she deserved to be for so long. As for dealing with Hiashi, Naruto didn't even want to touch that with a thirty-foot pole.

Shikamaru on the other hand had a different problem. He did love Temari and Shikadai, but he was absolutely convinced the genjutsu had destroyed any chance he had of being happy with her.

After showing them the proof of his tale, Shikamaru had opened up to both of them and said that he'd understand if Temari decided to dissolve their marriage due to his gross negligence as both husband and father, and apologized.

Shikadai hadn't said anything, as usual, and Temari had accepted the apology, but had told him she'd need time to let it all sink in before considering the future of their relationship.

Shikamaru had no contact with them except for a curt text message informing they had arrived safely in Suna.

Since then, he had moved into the Hokage Tower, and was now living in the large apartment where Tsunade lived while serving her term as Godaime, along with Naruto and Menma. He actually and for the first time in his life was happy with staying up at night alone with the child; Temari's hurt look haunted his every dream.

Naruto turned already droopy, tired eyes to Ino. "Thanks for helping out tonight," he said, making use of his napkin, and leaned back on his chair, opening his arms. Menma carefully moved into his lap and looked up at him. "Will you behave while Papa sleeps?"

Menma nodded. "Ino-chan has fo-fow-fol" the child tried saying, and pouted, looking at the blonde woman for help.

"Flowers," Ino helped, and the toddler nodded. "Yeah. Fllowwers."

Naruto smiled at them. "That's great. Well, let's go then." He stood up with the child on his lap, and they moved into a large room, where Naruto sat Menma on the king-size bed, before dragging himself over to the pillows and immediately falling asleep.

Ino sighed. Well, at least now little Menma was able to be physically apart from the blond long enough to have some activity besides being read to or learning to read – he had mastered both katakana and hiragana in four hours three days ago, and though he did like learning kanji, he was at a stage where standing up and moving was more interesting, and the ten foot radius he was able to move away from Naruto in the last two days meant the world to him.

Shikamaru sat on the floor in front of her, and helped her spread the large assortment of plants, before Menma jumped from the bed and made himself comfortable on his lap. "Ready?"

* * *

**A/N**:

**Isao** is a Japanese male name meaning both _honor_ and _merit_.

**Yonbi** is Japanese for four-tails.

Oh, and for anyone wondering about Sakura's father's behavior, although Japanese society rules that women must be submissive to their husbands, _husbands are supposed to protect, honor and respect_ their wives, and abusive relationships where the husband neglects his family like Kishimoto portrayed Sasusaku to be in chapter 700 are viewed in an extremely negative way - so much so that it is grounds for divorce in that country. The wife's family loses a lot of face if they allow for that, hence, Sakura's father and mother's stand in favor of the divorce.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N**: Hi everyone!

Yeah this chapter took quite some time to be done, but I hope it's worth the wait. And uh, no, sorry, can't say how long it'll take to get the next one up or how many chapters this fic will have - I hope it won't take as long as this chap did though.

Please PLEASE keep your great reviews coming, your feedback is fantastic and I LOVE it. I answer them all either through private messages or here (in case the reviewer wasn't logged in ffnet when they made their review) :D

* * *

Sasuke had wanted to be far away from the city already, but at Teuchi's request he had obliged to stay and run over the evidence their small spying network, _Shin_, had amassed.

As of right now they had enough to pin the Konoha Council, almost all the clan heads in Konoha and many subordinate members of others, including members of the Nara clan. It made absolutely zero sense not to find proof against Nara Shikamaru or Naruto, especially with the current head of the Konoha Council, Hyuuga Hiashi, getting most of the bribes from the Yakuza organization, along with Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, who were still quite alive and in good health at 85 years old, and who Naruto had never demanded step down from their councilor duties.

Sasuke looked at the stained wall where he and Teuchi had pinned the pictures and documents to better see the correlations between players in the scheme.

He could plainly see where Naruto's actions had openly benefited the scheme, but for all they investigated, they couldn't find any actual benefit the blond could be getting from it.

The Hyuuga clan had rented him a house inside the compound, but that was the only concession for the former Hyuuga heiress's family. His kids were ostracized – according to Suigetsu, Hinata had even been physically punished by Hiashi over Bolt's misbehaving, and the other Hyuuga children were forbidden to interact with them - Naruto's children had not been included in the Hyuuga family registry due to not having the Byakugan and to top it off Hinata had been partially disowned, also due to her inability to produce children with the Hyuuga bloodline limit.

Naruto's earnings were only his salary as Hokage; he had even declined to receive the post-war pension he himself had created. Hinata received hers, and it was enough for them to live comfortably, but not luxuriously. Not that Naruto himself made use of the comfort: most of the time he was locked up on the Hokage Tower signing documents he never read and discussing pointless actions that were never implemented with the other Kage over the internet. The Hokage hardly even saw his family.

Nara Shikamaru was also not exhibiting any signs of the wealth he by all means should be accumulating from the massive money laundering schemes the Nara clan had been involved in.

On the other hand, the Hyuuga main family, the Aburame, Nara and Akimichi clans were swimming in money. The other smaller clans were also stupidly wealthy, with the one exception being the Yamanaka.

It made no sense at all that the two men most important for the entire scheme to work weren't benefitting from it. And it nearly drove Sasuke crazy.

The Uchiha was the first to acknowledge that yes, he did want to publicly humiliate and expose his former best friend as the fraud he had to be. He _dreamed_ of having Naruto put in jail for letting the ninja world become this horrible travesty of "peace," where honor and loyalty meant nothing and privilege was even more of everything than it had been before the war.

Uzumaki Naruto had made him promise not to kill himself, had promised he'd change the system, clear the Uchiha name, get rid of the corrupt Konoha Council, and then betrayed him. He had cast Sasuke away as if he was _nothing_; to add insult to the injury, he had maintained the same Council that had ordered the Uchiha massacre.

And a week before he had become Hokage, the fucking Uzumaki had put the ultimate corruption scheme tool in motion.

He had convinced Hatake Kakashi that the Academy had to teach students more "useful" subjects for peaceful times, to become more like the civilian schools. That wouldn't have been a problem, if done right, Sasuke conceded. Problem was that the way it was implemented had eaten up the foundation of ninja training.

Teachers stopped teaching concepts like honor, and loyalty, and analyzing the history of ninja wars, all under the excuse of "preparing the younger generations for peace". Battle tactics and observational skills had become a side subject that didn't teach almost anything, leaving the actual training of future ninja to their clans alone.

That had led to the current situation, where no ninja under twenty years old had the skills to spot a maracas-playing, banana-costumed, lobotomized chimpanzee passing right under their noses, let alone fighting it, because the Yakuza was mostly comprised of criminals with no ninja skill but shitloads of cash, and the clan heads were more than happy to let most clan members go rusty, or not learn the basic skills at all.

Of course, the lack of training and consequent loss of skill by Konoha's ninjas had been very useful for Sasuke's organization – the fact that Suigetsu had access to the Hyuuga compound was key in getting information – but it was still a thorn on the Uchiha's side.

If only Karin had been able to escape at the end of the last war. Her talents as a sensor would've been invaluable.

Karin had been the only one in team Taka to be captured after the war. Suigetsu and Juugo had run off as fast as they could right after being released from the Infinite Tsukuyomi, but Karin had foolishly decided to turn herself in again.

She and Orochimaru had been killed while under custody even before the Konoha army had reached the village. No one had even tried to find out who the murderers were.

After that, Kabuto had quickly found a way to escape, never to be heard from again. Sasuke had suspected he would be the next to be disposed of, but no one bothered him.

It had taken him over a year of traveling to find Suigetsu and Juugo again.

He was distracted by a small polite cough, and turned his head to the door.

"Um, can I have dinner with Ayame-chan tonight?" Salad asked quietly, and gave him a small smile when he nodded, before quickly bowing in thanks and leaving.

Sasuke had to admit that the girl at least was much less bothersome than her useless mother. Despite her complete and utter lack of ability as a ninja, which she had confessed to and proven on the one morning her father had tried to gauge what she had learned at the Academy.

_"__So you have no chakra control at all, your chakra pathways are undeveloped, you can't use throwing weapons, or heal anything," Sasuke had counted on his fingers. "The Academy taught you nothing. How about your mother?" _

_Salad tried very hard to huddle by herself. "Mama didn't teach me anything about chakra, she said I wouldn't need it," she tried to explain, and shrunk even more when her father glared at her, "She said now that there's no more fighting I could find a good husband by just being a good, pretty and obedient girl, that I wouldn't have to pretend to want to be a ninja for real, like she had to, because the good catches weren't leaving the village anymore."_

_Sasuke's glare deepened, and his teeth gritted. "You might be only half-Uchiha, but you are still Uchiha. Uchiha women aren't supposed to be useless and weak. After we settle you'll learn a trade suitable to whatever talent you have, if you really have no use as a ninja, so that when you grow up you are independent and worthy of the Uchiha name," he declared, inwardly seething at Sakura's horrible parenting, yet another proof of her worthlessness. _

_He might have been stuck with Salad against his will, but now that he was, he'd at least make a decent Uchiha woman out of her. Uchiha women, ninja or civilian, although less privileged than men, were resilient and independent, and the clan respected them. His mother had proudly stood beside his father in life and in death, sharing the responsibility for the clan's fate, and he'd be damned if he'd let this child he had sired, physically defective or not, become as worthless as Haruno Sakura._

_"__If you think Mama is useless and weak, why did you marry her, then?" Salad had asked in a quiet voice._

_"__I made a mistake," Sasuke answered. "And to atone for it, I had to marry her so her honor would be restored. This mixed marriage only lasted this long because you exist. However, since your mother could not produce a viable Uchiha male heir, it is now over. You will learn a trade so that your future does not depend on marriage."_

_"__You didn't love her, then?" _

_"__No, Salad. Marriage often has nothing to do with feelings, and this was an example of that."_

They hadn't talked about that subject anymore, for Sasuke's relief.

Half an hour later, Salad came back with a bento for him.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked quietly while he sat down to eat. "Why did you give the senbei recipe to Teuchi-san? If it's an Uchiha recipe, shouldn't you have given it to Mama?"

Sasuke gave her a thoughtful look.

"Teuchi-san was a friend of Uruchi obaa-san. And he's not only my friend too, but someone who shares my worries about how Konoha has been run. So I gave him the recipe, not only to help him and Ayame-san, but also because the senbei works as communication between me and the people who help me in the city."

"You're worried about how the Nanadaime made Konoha City grow and brought peace," she said.

"You have seen how most of the people in the city live by now. Do you really think that constitutes peace?"

Salad lowered her head in thought, and then shook her head. "Not really, because people don't have enough food and things. So there's a lot of robbing and fighting, and people are afraid of each other. But then, it's better than war, isn't it?"

"Salad, people being afraid of each other is what leads to war," Sasuke explained, and gave a pained sigh. "It's something I had a friend teach me a long time ago."

'Too bad the usuratonkachi forgot about that,' he thought.

* * *

Ino was opening the flower shop on Monday when Hinata passed by, and the Yamanaka heiress called out to her.

"Um, Hinata-san? Can I have a word with you please?"

Ino had been waiting for this moment for the past week, already. As secretive as Naruto's condition and the whole jutsu business was, she felt sorry for the Hyuuga, and believed the woman deserved at least a basic explanation of what was going on. Besides, if she was stuck on the same jutsu she herself had been, it would be in her and Naruto's children's best interest for Hinata to be released from it.

Hinata gave her a sheepish smile and entered the shop, following Ino to the back room, where Ino served them both some tea.

"So," Ino began after the usual pleasantries had been shared, "I've been meaning to talk to you about something important. May I count on your discretion please?"

"Oh, of-of course," Hinata stuttered, feeling cornered. Ever since she had last seen Naruto she had been feeling uneasy, for even with the Uchiha child's death, of which Konohamaru had informed her, Naruto hadn't talked to her anymore. It wasn't as if going days, or even weeks, without contact with her husband was a novelty, but something felt off.

Ino gave her a friendly smile. "So, I don't know if you remember any of it, I mean, it was such a long time ago, but remember when you guys went to save Hanabi and fell in a genjutsu or something? Um, there were apparently some lingering side effects from that, so Naruto asked me to see you about it."

Hinata blanched, and started to tremble. "Um, oh, uh… really? I… I don't remember anything out of the ordinary, really. What… what happened?"

"Well, it seems the genjutsu besides showing one's true memories included false events and false emotional associations in the psyche. Nothing major," Ino said with a reassuring smile, after noting the woman's reaction, "but something that might have, er, manipulated the personality. So the Hokage asked me to evaluate everyone that went under it. It really is a minor thing, but for obvious security reasons he has asked for secrecy."

A bead of sweat dripped from Hinata's forehead, and she gave the Yamanaka heiress a forced smile. "Um, sure, but uh, how and when would you want to do it? You know how it is with children, if it's something I need to be away from home..."

"Oh, don't worry, it's a very simple procedure," Ino said, waiving her hand and smiling, "I won't look at memories or anything, I just need to take a look at your mind's structure, it's not a big deal at all. We can do it whenever you feel comfortable."

"Oh. Ok. Um, may we do it in a more convenient time, then? I'm sure you are busy right now, and"

"Of course! Don't worry about it, just please contact me when you're free and I'll drop by your house."

After that, Ino steered the conversation to more domestic subjects.

'Poor woman. At least she won't be in the dark anymore,' she thought, watching Hinata leave twenty minutes later.

* * *

Salad adjusted her backpack and tried to remain as quiet as she could beside her Papa in the full bus.

Papa radiated frustration, and she knew it was her fault for not being able to travel through the trees like a real ninja could.

It's not as if she hadn't tried to learn: she had, often, but her chakra control was simply nonexistent. Everyone made fun of her, saying that even Rock Lee, who was unable to perform the simplest jutsu, could do it.

Well, at least she was honest about her complete lack of abilities, unlike stupid Bolt, who she had seen perform quite advanced jutsu since before entering the stupid Academy, but who'd simply lie through his teeth and pretend he didn't know much of anything.

It was the first reason for Salad's interest in him.

She had caught the boy teleporting once, while desperately trying to get up a stupid tree in the middle of the Valley of the End national park. Her eyes had gone as wide as saucers with that, and she had quickly hidden behind a bush, watching in secret as the boy spent two hours training ninjutsu and taijutsu like a full-grown man.

And then when classes started at the Academy, she watched in silence as the boy pretended shamelessly to not know anything.

Of course, having no friends at all since her father was the village outcast, Salad didn't have anyone to talk to about the strangeness in Bolt's behavior. Not even Mama, since, when she tried to talk to her, Mama had simply told her to stop thinking about him, because he wouldn't be "good enough for an Uchiha girl".

The second reason for Salad's interest in Bolt had been the simple fact that the other kids were just either uninteresting or Chouchou. Chouchou _was_ interesting, if nothing else for the fact she didn't care at all about anyone's opinion about her, but she ignored Salad as much as everyone else did.

Considering that Chouchou ignored everyone, only interacting with her forced teammates Inojin and Shikadai when Inojin's mom demanded they trained the InoShikaChou formation, Salad didn't take it personally. In fact, she actually envied Chouchou's ability to let the other kids' mean attitude fly far over her head. However, she was a girl, an Akimichi, and black, all of which in Mama's opinion made her undesirable as a friend (especially being a girl, since, as Mama always said, there was no true friendship between women, because they would always want to steal their friend's man). And Salad didn't want to get Mama mad at her for pursuing someone who would never even look at her in the first place.

At least Bolt noticed when she was around. And he was a boy, which meant that if Mama complained, she could at least say that she had no choice and had to pursue him, after all Mama herself had said that girls were made to marry their first love, and Mama's first love had been the first boy that had caught her attention.

Sure enough, that had shut Mama up, though after a few more times trying to talk to Mama about Bolt's stupid (in Salad's opinion) behavior without response, Salad had just given up talking to her altogether.

The third reason for Salad's interest in Bolt had been the boy's frustrated attempts to catch his dad's attention. She had felt a kinship to him in that respect, since her own Papa was hardly ever home, and even when he was, he hardly looked at her.

Well, Salad had had an entire week with her Papa now, and if she ever met Bolt again, she'd be sure to laugh at him for being naïve enough to think fathers were all that special.

She could say that at least Papa was civil and tried teaching her a thing or two, but he wasn't interested in what she had to say in the least. Not that she actually felt like talking to him often, he was that intimidating. And she felt awkward as hell around him.

Salad much preferred to be with Ayame-chan and Teuchi-san.

The ramen stall owners had taken care of her all week, even teaching her how to make the Uchiha senbei and miso ramen, which she learned was her father's favorite (she leaned towards pork ramen herself, but since she couldn't eat a whole serving, she'd definitely settle for making miso, at least it had nothing to do with tomatoes). They had also told her a lot of stories about her family, stories that she had never heard from anyone.

Teuchi-san would talk about the times when her Papa was small, after the Kyuubi had destroyed the village, and how he and Teyaki ojii-chan would contraband wheat flour and sesame together to feed the people in Konoha, Teyaki using his Sharingan to put the border guards of the Earth nation under genjutsu while he pulled the huge carts, while Uruchi obaa-chan and Ayame's mom cooked for everyone for free.

Ayame-chan would talk about the time when her mom got sick, and Uruchi obaa-chan had taken her in so Teuchi-san could take care of her mom and the ramen stall, and how she had been the one to help run the ramen stall when her mom died and they were in mourning.

It was Ayame, too, that had gone into the Uchiha compound in the days when Papa was in the hospital after the massacre, to find out what Papa would be willing to eat. She had found a couple of tomato plants in the vegetable garden, with a little sign saying "Sasuke's favorite", and took the tomatoes to the hospital.

So it was that, when Salad's Papa came back to Konoha, he gave Teuchi-san and Ayame-chan the recipe for the Uchiha senbei, which he had found on Uruchi obaa-chan's belongings and kept with him, together with a picture of his family and Itachi oji-san's necklace.

There were only two other things that Papa kept with him at all times. He had never shown them to Salad, but she had once caught him looking at them one night, as she tiptoed to use the bathroom.

One was an old Konoha headband, the other a very small yellowish stone. Salad understood them to be extremely important, for Papa to be so distracted by them not to notice her moving through the small apartment they were using while in the city.

That, and he had been crying in silence.

* * *

Hinata entered her home and immediately went into her bedroom, locking the door after herself after briefly checking on Himawari, who was quietly playing with her dolls.

She sat on the bed and hugged her knees, memory playing out on her head.

_"So, um, Sakura-san, did you talk to Naruto-kun? How did it go?" Hinata asked in a hopeful tone. _

_"Yes, I did. Unfortunately… Naruto kinda behaved like an idiot, as usual," Sakura said in a grim voice, but then smiled. "However, I've found something that can surely change his mind and make him acknowledge your feelings."_

_Hinata widened her eyes as Sakura sat beside her in the park bench and pulled a tiny scroll out of her skirt pocket. _

_"This is a very old forbidden seduction jutsu, I found it on the forbidden jutsu archive at the Hokage Tower," Sakura said in a secretive tone, "It's an Uchiha technique, so unfortunately it wouldn't work on Sasuke-kun… but it will definitely work on Naruto, I'm confident on it. It's also untraceable, so you don't have to worry about being found out or anything. And this is the best time of the year to use it, because it weaves into an object that the victim," she giggled, "must use on his body for an extended period of time. You're already thinking of making Naruto a scarf, aren't you? It's perfect for this jutsu!"_

_The Hyuuga heiress took the small scroll and hugged it close to her heart. This would be perfect… the key to Naruto-kun's heart! She only needed to know one thing. _

_"Um, Sakura-san… thank you so much, I don't know how I'll ever repay you for this… but… why was this technique forbidden?"_

_Sakura gave her a knowing smirk. "Probably because clan heads were afraid of mixed marriages. But that's none of our concern here, isn't it? Don't worry, it's perfectly safe!"_

_Hinata had taken the scroll home, after profusely thanking her newfound friend and ally again, and opened it. _

_The jutsu was deceptively simple: it wove the caster's wishes and dreams, not only of obtaining the victim's love, but of how the victim should behave and manifest that love (something Hinata thought very useful, since Naruto-kun unfortunately lacked in proper manners) through their chakra into a piece of clothing or some other little adornment that they'd use every day for at least a couple of months. It had a temporary effect: the more time the victim used the object, the longer the jutsu would work. After a determined time, say, a year after three months of continuous use of the object, another object must be made to substitute the original and re-cast the jutsu on the victim. _

_It was really, as Sakura-san had said, perfect for this season and Hinata's intention of giving Naruto a scarf. It was the beginning of winter, which meant if she could make him wear the scarf until the end of the season, she'd have him for an entire year. And she could always give him a new one for his birthday, as a memento of their mutual love. It was so convenient, it had to be fate. _

_And so Hinata had done just that. The scarf had to be redone during Hanabi's rescue - no way would the Hyuuga heiress leave it at home, gods knew how long they'd take in the rescue mission, time was of the essence; but then they fell on the genjutsu lake, and the scarf most conveniently - another sign that it had all been the gods of fate working on Hinata's favor - had enveloped Naruto, and Toneri's genjutsu had triggered and reinforced Hinata's own jutsu, so much so that Naruto had woken from it already in deep love with her. _

Hinata had faithfully renewed the jutsu every year, and everything had been perfect up to now. No one could have been affected by that specific jutsu, and it was the only thing that had happened that could change someone's personality. Hinata herself had been caught in the genjutsu and nothing had happened to her, so the Yamanaka-hime's orders had to have been issued because Naruto-kun somehow had found out about the scarf's true purpose.

And if Naruto-kun had found out…

Hinata jumped on the bed. This year's scarf! He couldn't have found out, she had already given it to him… she gasped as she remembered the last time Naruto had come home.

Didn't he _take_ the damn thing with him, after leaving with that little Uchiha monster?

Hinata ran out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, where she grabbed her maid by the shoulders.

"Yuka! Did you see a new red scarf on the living room these last few days? I might have dropped it and can't find it, it's very important!"

The older woman gave her a startled look, and then visibly calmed. "Oh, yes, Hinata-sama. I found it and took it to your bedroom, it must be in your closet with your knitting bag," she said, smiling.

Hinata whimpered and ran back to the bedroom, nearly demolishing everything in her desperate search, until she found the thing neatly folded on top of her knitting basket.

"Oh no… oh no, no, _no_..."

* * *

**A/N**: Shin means Truth in Japanese.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Hi everyone! Thanks so much for the reviews, keep 'em coming please!

To **ignoramus**: Yeah, it's as you fear, the characters changed A LOT in the end of the series and The Last movie, and that is why someone who haven't seen that canon material may feel they are very different in this fic - because in canon they DID turn out that way, and that's the basis for this fic.

TRIGGER WARNING: Murder and infanticide happen in this chapter.

Thanks to everyone who's been reading, reviewing - I love you guys! *glomp*

And a special thanks to my fantastic beta, the lovely **Lohrendrell**

* * *

Nine tailed beasts sat in a circle around a man and a toddler sleeping tightly curled around each other. A strong stream of purple chakra flowed from the child to the man.

The tiny boy was extremely pale, breathing shallowly through bluish lips.

"I'm sorry, guys. I really tried all I could," Son Goku said with tears in his eyes, "but I can't think of anything else that can save this child short of changing his body so it will produce a different chakra, and that… isn't possible."

Through the night the child's condition, which had been steadily improving, took an unexpected turn for the worst as Naruto's body hastened the consumption of his chakra.

Kurama shook his head. "I can't accept this. This… is not what we were created for."

"Every war has its sacrifices, brother," Chomei said quietly. "Try to understand, it would be selfish not to. Many innocent have died before, as well."

"Selfish?" Shukaku snarled. "How selfish is it of us to watch yet another innocent die like this, when we know that yes, it is possible to save him?"

"Have you grown tired of living then, brother?" Matatabi asked.

"We can't do it anyway," Saiken added, "the boy is Uchiha and he carries Indra's chakra, the Curse of Hatred…"

"Oh, stop it with the Uchiha curse, we all know the boy's brain structure would change to accommodate the new chakra pattern. As for Indra's chakra, he will be freed of it. The only thing stopping us from saving him are our own selfish interests and our prejudice against his line," Kokuou said, irritably waving his five tails.

"Still, it is not our task to break the cycle of reincarnation," Isobu muttered.

"Prrft, if the cycle must continue then be it by Asura killing Indra in a battle between equals, not like this!" Gyuuki complained. "Guys, remember why Father created us in the first place? Why Father joined Naruto and the Uchiha? Do you really think he would be happy if we let his memory be soiled by such a tragedy?"

"So what do we do then, sacrifice ourselves for something we don't even know will work or not? I like staying alive, thank you very much!" Matatabi growled at him.

"You guys," Kurama said, and sighed. "Have you thought about the fact that maybe this is a way to close an even more important cycle? We ultimately came into being because that bitch Kaguya went against the gods' will and ate the Shinju fruit that was destined to feed and protect life. We were never even supposed to exist in the first place. Why can't we finally join hands and resume the task the Shinju fruit was created for? If we do it, when this child does die, his body will return to the cycle of life and ours with it. There would be no more risk of enslavement for us, no more risk of us being used by the humans for destruction. And unlike a Jinchuuriki, he would be physically part of us as we would be part of him. He wouldn't be a super-being, just an ordinary person with a lot of chakra. Of course, he could develop into a powerful ninja, but he'd have to work for it just like everyone else does. Which, by the way, is a lot more than his father or Naruto did, if you recall what Father gave to them so they could win the war."

Son Goku bit his lip. "Well, damn. If we see things through this angle, then… I guess it's at least worth putting it through a vote. Everyone in favor of doing it raise their paw."

In the end, everyone did, even Matatabi. Though he did it grumbling, and only after the others glared at him.

The nine beasts joined hands, and Shukaku touched the hand not holding Matatabi's on the child's head.

"Goodbye, Naruto. It was a lot of fun. I know you'll understand this. Please, please don't fuck things up again, ok? I'll never forget you," Kurama whispered, giving the Uzumaki a loving look before being sucked into the child's brain.

Without the restraint from the beasts, Naruto's body sucked out all of what remained of Menma's purple chakra. The little boy heaved a last breath, and then went still for an interminable second, before his body's desperate cells got into gear and merged with the tailed beasts' bodies, glowing red before going into frenzied activity.

Naruto woke up with a start, and looked down at the same time the child's heart began slowly beating again. Before he could panic at the stillness of Menma's chest, however, the boy began breathing again, still comatose, but alive.

Meanwhile, nine baby tailed beasts fell out of an impossibly crayon blue sky, in which shone a lollipop crayon yellow sun, into a bright crayon green prairie decorated with equally crayon-drawn flowers.

"Ouch," Shukaku muttered as his siblings piled on him. They moved off each other and shook their heads, all but Chomei, whose chubby green caterpillar body squeaked like a toy instead, as Saiken tripped and fell sitting on it.

Menma's eye went wide as a saucer. "Hi?" the ugly little Uchiha greeted in a happily startled whisper.

* * *

"Calm down, Hinata," Sakura nearly growled on the phone. "Look, when it's more convenient we can talk about this again, how about that?"

The former Uchiha matriarch nodded her head and closed her cell phone, gritting her teeth.

Sakura couldn't believe her bad luck. It was all that monster's fault! If that thing hadn't been born, Sasuke-kun wouldn't have left her, Naruto would have put on the stupid scarf like he was supposed to, and everything would be as it should be!

She paced back and forth, thinking.

The first thing she had to do was make sure that none of this traced back to her. If Naruto caught on the seduction jutsu, and Hinata blabbered, he'd definitely turn Sakura over to the Torture and Interrogation unit. She couldn't have that. No matter how strong she was, she knew Ibiki's tactics would eventually pry open her mind, and then she'd be screwed.

Sasuke-kun would never forgive her for what she had done. Not the seduction jutsu - that could easily be construed as the foolishness of teenage girls in love and manipulated to look like Tsunade had been reckless by letting Sakura have access to the forbidden scrolls - but for her lying to him about Naruto's motivation to marry Hinata, and that redhead bitch's death.

She realized the girl was more important to Sasuke-kun than her when Sakura saw her after the war, turning herself in willingly again. She had asked Karin what she had been doing there, and the whore had smugly said that Sasuke-kun had gone to fetch her from the prison himself.

Sakura had then realized she had made a huge mistake by not killing Karin when Sasuke-kun had given her the chance to do it. Especially since the treatment Sasuke had given her throughout the fight. The man had tortured Sakura for an entire day with his genjutsu, and after she had healed him and they went back to the war front, he had actually called for the redhead, had expressed worry about her condition.

But for Sakura? He had only said he was sorry.

So Sakura understood that the only way she would finally get her prize was by eliminating the competition. It was a hard choice to make, but the only logical one. As long as Sasuke-kun had other people to rely on, he would never acknowledge Sakura's feelings, let alone return them.

She had easily poisoned the redhead and Orochimaru with one of Chiyo-sama's specialized poisons, of which she had been granted the recipes after the woman's death.

No one cared much about the female prisoner's death with the relief Orochimaru's demise brought the army, just as Sakura had predicted.

However, even after getting rid of her most direct competition Sasuke-kun had decided to leave the village without her, no matter how much she pleaded. Sakura had waited for Kakashi to go back through the gates and hurried after the Uchiha, desperate to change his mind.

And then she saw it.

Hidden in the trees, she saw Sasuke-kun meet with Naruto, and, more importantly, she saw the way they looked at each other.

Sasuke-kun had never looked at her like that, but Sakura had received enough enamored looks from other men to recognize what was on his eyes. And Naruto's.

In that moment, she almost gave up.

It was one thing to get rid of the criminals Sasuke-kun had associated with in the past, but Naruto? How the hell could she get away with killing the war hero, the most powerful ninja alive?

How could she compete with Naruto, when Sasuke-kun had even told her that he had no interest in having kids with anyone to repopulate his clan before leaving the village? Sakura knew damn well that Sasuke-kun had a much stronger relationship with Naruto than with her, that had been the reason she had made the blond promise to get him back to her.

She never realized their bond was so deep, though. Not to the point that Sasuke-kun would tell Naruto he would come back for him, to settle things between them, and not tell her that as well, only that he would come back.

Not to the point where Sasuke-kun would look at Naruto as if he was so precious to him, it hurt to be apart.

Sakura had spent a year and a half depressed. Even more depressed as she saw that Naruto, no matter his hero status and hordes of fangirls, didn't ever acknowledge anyone's feelings for him, let alone go on dates.

The blond didn't even ask her out anymore. It was as if he had resigned himself to be alone: he was polite and nice to everyone, but gave no signs of interest in them, either.

The more time passed, the more fearful Sakura became that Naruto and Sasuke-kun might actually want to defy tradition and, gods forbid, settle things between them.

And then, one day, she saw some genin girls talking about love potions and how they wished there was a jutsu to make a person love another.

She had stopped on her tracks, turned around and run to the Forbidden Jutsu Archives, to which she had access, since she was Tsunade's disciple and one of the new Sannin.

She spent two entire days in the dusty room, frantically searching. The Konoha Archives were, due to Orochimaru's work (both official and confiscated after his death), the most complete in the Five Elemental countries. If ever was such a jutsu produced, it had to be there.

And it was. Alas, the author of the jutsu was an Uchiha kunoichi, and she had made sure to make the jutsu in a way that wouldn't affect her kin.

Sakura held on to the scroll anyway, and started to quietly and very slowly probe around. After a couple of months, she was able to ascertain that Hinata was still in love with the Uzumaki, and she began to put her plan in motion.

With Naruto out of the way, no one else would keep Sasuke-kun from her clutches.

It had worked perfectly, and Toneri's genjutsu had speeded up the process marvelously. The Uzumaki hadn't even considered sending a message to Sasuke about his wedding, and that had also worked well on Sakura's favor, for when the Uchiha finally came back, he was so distraught she easily duped him into sleeping with her.

Sakura had lived her dream for over ten years. Of course, it hadn't been all easy; Sasuke-kun never told her he loved her and stayed far from their home, coming back in few occasions, made fewer after Salad's eyesight deteriorated, but still, Sakura was absolutely sure that if she only produced a male heir for the Uchiha, he would give up whatever nonsense he did outside the village and would settle in with her. After all, telling her or not, he had to love her, he still had intercourse with her when he did come to Konoha, didn't he? Sex was the ultimate proof of love between husband and wife. Theirs had never been passionate or romantic, or often for that matter, but Sakura viewed that as a measure of Sasuke's respect for her. She was his wife, after all, not a common whore.

Sakura had become desperate with the misshapen result of her last pregnancy, but hoped that Sasuke-kun might even forgive her for that, after a while; he was a man, and men had no patience with children, so he surely would become tired of looking after Salad and would return to her, begging for her to take him back. After that, all she would need to do was get the child out of their way, and they could start from scratch again.

But if her part in luring Naruto to marry Hinata against his will and her disposing of Karin became public, Sasuke-kun would never forgive her. He had already taken everything away, her daughter, her home, her name from the Uchiha registry, just for birthing that monster. Sakura shuddered to think what he would do if he found out what else she had done.

She dressed in nondescript clothing, covered her hair and steeled herself to face Hinata.

* * *

Half an hour later the young genin guarding the entrance to the Hyuuga compound greeted the Hokage as he went inside.

Himawari ran to him and he picked her up with a large smile.

"My little girl! How about we go inside and you get really pretty for Papa? Show me your best kimono, ne?"

He went around the house and entered through the red-curtained side glass doors leading to the yard, kissing Himawari and letting her down. The little girl ran excitedly to her bedroom.

The housekeeper bowed to him, and he told her to fetch his wife.

Hinata hurried to the living room.

"Yuka, you are free to go now, we won't require your services for the rest of the day," she ordered. The housekeeper thanked them and left.

Hinata offered Naruto some tea, and the Hokage sat down in waiting. Ten minutes later, the former Hyuuga heiress came back bearing a tray.

"She is gone now, you can drop the henge, Sakura-san." Hinata said quietly, while closing the red curtains and turning on the lights.

"I'd rather keep it, you know how things are," Sakura said, accepting a cup of tea. "This is a very serious matter, Hinata."

"You think I don't know that?" Hinata gave her a pained look. "We can only hope Naruto-kun understands and forgives me," she whispered dejectedly, rubbing her hands.

"Hinata, you can't tell him about the jutsu, you know. If you tell him, he'll know who gave it to you, would you take away even my freedom, now that I have lost everything?" Sakura asked, feigning hurt.

"I have no choice, Sakura-san… Ino said she was ordered to look into my mind, and that she already saw inconsistencies on the others. She'll see that I don't have those inconsistencies, and when Naruto knows about it, you know what he'll do! He'll send me to Ibiki, and I can't… I can't pretend I didn't manipulate him into becoming who he's been all these years, Sakura-san. I've given all of me to our marriage, to my family… but I can't do this anymore. I'm… I'm tired of lying. I'm tired of having to shoulder everything by myself, to hide so much from Naruto-kun. I love him and I know he'll understand."

Sakura sighed, and put her cup on the coffee table before standing with her hands in her pockets. Hinata stood as well and came closer to see her out.

"I was afraid it would come to this, Hinata," she said, and sighed, before pulling Naruto's wife to a kiss with her left hand, while burying a kunai to the hilt into the brunette's heart with her right.

She held the struggling woman, swallowing her cries, until she went still, and let the body drop to the floor.

"Interesting technique," a male voice said, and Sakura jumped backwards, pulling a second kunai from her pocket.

Hyuuga Hiashi came into the living room carrying Himawari, and raised a hand. "Do not fear, Uchiha-san, I come in peace," he said. Himawari's eyes went as wide as saucers as she saw her mother's body on the floor, but Hiashi covered the girl's mouth to keep her from screaming.

"You see, Uchiha-san, despite my daughter's inability to produce viable Hyuuga heirs, her husband's… eagerness to please me and the Council have been extremely profitable, for mine and all the other Konoha clans. It is in my best interest that things continue to be that way, instead of the Nanadaime suddenly deciding to change his… government style. And I do agree with you that if word got out of his… enthrallment by jutsu, his actions would come unto question by the other Kage and our esteemed Daimyo."

"How did you get here?" Sakura asked, bile rising in her throat.

"I saw the Hokage entering the compound and, aware of his absence of many days, decided to use the Byakugan to be sure of his identity. When I saw that the intruder was yourself, I became curious and decided to unobtrusively watch your conversation with my unfortunate daughter."

"You have my life in your hands, then."

"Oh, Uchiha-san, please don't assume I wish to blackmail you. What I'm about to offer you, I shall as a friend. Please accept this as proof of trust," Hiashi said quietly, and with a quick movement, broke Himawari's neck.

Outside, watching through a slit between the curtains with his chakra signature hidden, Bolt peed his pants in terror, and took a step backward, jolted out of his shocked state by his grandfather's action.

Before he could utter the scream that was bubbling up his chest, though, strong arms held him and a large hand covered his mouth from behind.

"Don't move if you want to live," Suigetsu whispered in his ear, before picking the boy up, sprinting and jumping over the compound wall, straight into an open manhole.

* * *

Meanwhile, Shikamaru ushered Tsunade into the Hokage's quarters.

"Baa-chan, please help, something happened to us," Naruto begged.

Tsunade entered the bedroom, and gasped.

Menma's body was embedded in red chakra.

"Tell me what happened," she ordered.

"I woke up and he wasn't breathing, then all of a sudden he started again, but then his body was filled with this chakra. And… I can't feel Kurama anymore."

Tsunade pulled Naruto's shirt up, and touched his belly where the seal used to be.

"The Kyuubi is gone," she said, and immediately tried to touch the child, only to be thrust away, barreling onto the Hokage.

"I can't touch him either," Naruto said. "I think… I think we're in deep shit, baa-chan."

"You think the Kyuubi took over him?"

Naruto shook his head. "Kurama told me the beasts wouldn't allow for him to die because of something their father did. I don't know what he did - but I'm afraid."


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Hey everyone! Thank you all for your lovely reviews :D

To **mayb**: Some jutsu work a lot like magic spells (and btw jutsu in Japanese means spell as well as technique), especially the mind jutsu techniques, so it's not that far-fetched that a knowledgeable kunoichi would develop a jutsu that works like this, binding people's love through magic is something many people want (and attempt to do in our own world, tho I honestly don't think it works, the only people I've met who ever tried that didn't end up well). As for Hinata's fate... hmmm yes she did take Sakura's offer, but I honestly see Hinata as being more brainless and gullible than actually evil. She never seemed to possess the kind of cunning necessary to manipulate people on her own devices (and that shows in The Last, where Sakura has to push her towards Naruto).

Sakura, on the other hand... let's just say I'm having a lot of fun because she is a damn good villain to write, lol.

* * *

"Holy fucking shit Sasuke's gonna go nuts when I tell him what the Hokage did!" Suigetsu whispered breathlessly as he ran through the sewers clutching the squirming boy. "I wonder if Hinata-san found out about the yakuza schemes, that gotta be the reason for Naruto and Hiashi to do that!"

Bolt realized no amount of biting and squirming was going to get the strange man's attention: whatever he tried to reach turned to water. The guy didn't seem to want to hurt him, but on the other hand…

The Scumbag was the only family Bolt had left now. And despite the scumbag that he was, he was obviously being framed; that meant that if people caught him, Bolt would be alone against Hiashi. Who not only had just killed Himawari, but hated Bolt's guts.

Besides… even if his father was a scumbag, Bolt wouldn't act like one himself.

With that somewhat coherent thought in mind, Bolt concentrated and formed a Rasengann cocoon around his body, splatting Suigetsu's body all around him.

The Mist nin recomposed his body and gaped at the boy.

"It wasn't him," Bolt gasped, wiping dirty water off his face. "It was a henge. I saw through it," he said.

"Dude, I know he's your dad but what happened right now is really serious, your mother and sister -"

"The fucking Scumbag didn't kill them, damn it, I saw who did it! I have to warn him before they catch him!"

"How can you expect me to believe you saw it was a henge from behind glass doors? You're not even a genin!"

Bolt sighed. "You have fracture lines on your left radius, your right tibia and fibula, and at the back of your skull. That means your ability to liquefy your body isn't something you were born with," the boy said, and Suigetsu's eyes widened.

"You don't smoke, but your lungs show sign of chronic inflammatory disease. That shows that whatever was done to you to turn into what you are now has side effects that weren't accounted for. Your reproductive organs -"

"How the fuck do you know all that?" Suigetsu interrupted in an alarmed voice.

"I can see it. I see… _everything_."

* * *

Salad looked down from the giant hawk, up again at her father, who had just jumped from it and entered the small farm house in front of them, and swallowed.

She knew that the hawk was a summons and that it'd poof away soon, but… how did Papa expect her to jump from up there without twisting an ankle or something? The damn thing was ten feet high!

She sighed and gathered her courage. The worst that could happen was Salad breaking her neck, but that'd happen if she jumped or not. It didn't look in the least as if Papa was going to remember she was basically no ninja, anyway…

"Need a hand?" a voice called, and Salad looked down to see a very tall, strong man with ginger hair looking up at her. She nodded quietly, trying not to show her fear.

The man smiled kindly. "I'm Juugo. Just jump down and I'll catch you."

She adjusted her backpack and did as the kind man said, holding back an embarrassed tear. "Thank you," she muttered, with her eyes down.

Juugo pulled her chin up. "You don't have to be embarrassed," he said in a conspiratory whisper, "I was afraid the first time I traveled in one of those too. Would you like some tea? I'll bet your dad didn't stop all the way here."

Salad smiled, nodded, and then frowned. "Um… can I go to the bathroom please?"

Juugo laughed, and picked her up. "Sure! Welcome to Shin Farm, little Salad."

* * *

"Un. Lemme see if I understand, so my body was gonna die and you guys saved me, and now you're part of me?" Menma asked.

"You didn't notice your body was dying?" Shukaku asked, and Menma shook his head. "Ever since I know who I am my body hurts a lot, so I made this place. In here, it doesn't hurt. I only come out when the moon is up in the sky, then it doesn't hurt so much," the little boy explained.

The baby beasts looked up at the crayon sky, and nodded. "Aaaaahh," they did in unison.

"That was a really good idea," Son Goku said, and nodded. "But… you shouldn't be in pain now that we mixed up our bodies with yours," he frowned.

Menma looked at them pensively. "Hmmmm… ok lemme see," he said, and disappeared.

At the Hokage's private quarters, a child's cry was heard, and Naruto ran to Menma's side.

"Menma! Please please help us help you out, we can't hold you or give you medicine, can you control what's happening?" Naruto asked.

The little boy tried to open his eye, but it was as if his eyelids were fused to each other. His whole body burned, and he could feel things moving inside him. He took a shaky breath.

"They said it shouldn't hurt," he whispered, and fainted.

Menma appeared beside the baby beasts again. "Owwww…" he complained, and pouted. "It hurts so much out there, sorry… I had to come back."

"Do you think one of us could go out and see if we can help you?" Kurama asked. "I once did that with your Papa, maybe it'll work."

Menma sat down and pulled baby Choumei into a hug, and the beast squeaked, before shrugging. "You do what you want, but it really hurts a lot. I can pet you when you come back to make it better," he said, and Kurama smiled. He hadn't been wrong about the kid.

The fox closed his eyes and focused on his body. It had been the way he had been able to come forwards with Naruto, so maybe…

"Yowch! Damn the kid was right, this hurts like hell!" Kurama yelled.

"_Kurama_? What the fuck did you do to Menma you stupid fox?" Naruto yelled back at him.

Kurama focused his attention on what was going on the child's body, and shuddered. 'Whoops…'

"We had to merge with him to change his body enough so that his chakra pattern would change, you were killing him baka," he growled through Menma's lips. "His cells are mutating to accommodate our chakra."

"We? What do you mean we?" Tsunade asked, coming close to the bed.

"All of us, all the bijuu!" the fox snarled in pain.

There was a collective gasp.

"Brat, you have to find a way to give him food so his body can metabolize the chakra, that's the only way his body won't be consumed in this process. I'm going to divert the excess chakra so you can touch him and feed him, but I can't talk while you do it, it will take all my concentration. Oh," Kurama said, "Find a way to tell B that Gyuuki is fine, we're all alive and a part of his mind now. Hurry!"

Tsunade was already calling Shizune and telling her what supplies she needed, and Naruto sat on the bed beside the little boy, stunned.

"Shikamaru," he said after a few minutes, "send an email to B informing him that Gyuuki is fine and he doesn't have to worry. Tell him I'll talk to him as soon as we can."

Shikamaru nodded and hurried out to his office.

When the Hokage's assistant got there, though, he was greeted by a bizarre sight.

A puddle of water in the middle of his office was turning into a man.

He quickly took hold of the man through his shadow. "Who the hell are you and what do you want?"

"Hey hey! Calm down man, I'm not your enemy!" Suigetsu yelled, and Shikamaru's door opened behind him.

"Let him go, Shikamaru," Bolt's voice was heard after the door was closed quietly. "He's with me."

"Bolt? Uh, what are you doing here? Your father," Shikamaru started, and his eyes bulged as he felt his throat constricted by a ring of water.

"You will _not _make any stupid excuses for the Scumbag and you _will _listen to me because this is fucking _important_. My mother and Himawari were killed and the people who did it along with my _dear_," Bolt snarled, "grandfather will be coming to get the Scumbag next, so be a good _fucking_ assistant and take me to him, we have to leave this place right now."

With that, Bolt released the Nara, and crossed his arms, giving him an icy glare.

Shikamaru gaped, and turned to Suigetsu, who had been able to recompose himself in the meantime.

"Is… is this true?" he whispered, and Bolt let out a derisive snort as the former Taka member nodded. Leave it to adults to never believe in anything children said.

"Yeah. I was there too, and I got Bolt out. I was going to take him to somewhere safe because it looked like it was Naruto who killed his mom, but he insists it was someone else using a henge," Suigetsu said, and scratched his elbows.

"And… and he's right, I've been with Naruto the whole time. Couldn't have been a clone either because he's… he's been…" Shikamaru hesitated, but shook his head. "You guys better see for yourselves, but how can we walk around the building without alerting the ANBU?"

"I've put them under a genjutsu," Bolt said, and Shikamaru gaped again. Bolt sighed. "I can do any jutsu I see people doing first," he explained. Shikamaru's eyes widened even further, and the man looked at Suigetsu.

"Don't you fucking ask me, dude, I don't know nuffin'," he said.

* * *

Hiashi and Sakura, meanwhile, shared tea in the Uzumaki household.

Sakura felt uneasy. Not due to the corpses laid down next to them - as a medic nin she had gotten used to death long ago - but due to the Hyuuga's calm demeanor.

"Tell me what you want from me," she asked wearily.

"I and the people who have backed the Council's decisions for the last decade have in our best interest that the political situation in the Fire Country remains the same. To be honest it was quite interesting to meet Naruto-kun after the mission to retrieve Hanabi and see that he had become… quite pliable to our clan's - mine, that is - interests. With the help from our associates we have secured peace and prosperity for ninja everywhere. However, with Naruto-kun's… awakening, I am afraid he would again try to meddle into our business due to unfortunate side effects they have in the life of the… lower castes. That would be unacceptable," Hiashi explained, and took a sip of his tea. "And so I would offer you a chance to not only escape judgement over your actions, but to also gain what you want the most… seeing as your husband's dramatic end of your marriage is obviously not something you agree with."

Sakura's eyes narrowed. This was actually interesting for her. "Go on," she said.

"You see, you are in a respectable position, as the Godaime's pupil and her successor as the new Slug Sannin," Hiashi said. "If Naruto-kun was charged with the murder of his family, he would obviously be removed from his position as Hokage, and I do not doubt that, with the Council's help, you would easily be nominated to his place."

Sakura smirked.

"With you as the Hachidaime Hokage, you could easily order the imprisonment of the Uchiha for his past crimes - seeing as they were only waived due to the previous Hokage's direct intervention - and with him detained in Konoha, for your help with maintaining the status quo, the Council would gracefully relegate his fate to you - alone," Hiashi stated, and smiled at her.

"I think, in face of the current events, that you want an immediate response from me," Sakura said calmly, and Hiashi nodded, still smiling.

She knew that she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Not accepting the Hyuuga's offer would mean fighting with him, and fighting with the Hyuuga clan leader on his grounds would definitely call attention, which would expose Sakura as Hinata and Himawari's murderer - of that she had no doubt.

On the other hand…

Accepting his offer would give her a chance of getting Sasuke-kun back, and, this time, without any means for him to leave her again. Sure, if the Council was caught doing something wrong it would be her head on the line… but then again, if what Hiashi had said was true, they had already been ruling behind the scenes since the early days of Kakashi's term as Hokage. That meant they must have built a solid foundation on where to stand on.

And Sakura had really nothing to lose.

"I accept your terms, Hiashi-sama," she said, standing, and bowed to him. He stood and returned the gesture.

"What would you require of me?" she asked.

"Please leave the compound with your henge on, and after dropping the henge at an appropriately secure location on the way to the Hokage Tower, go directly to your house. To all effects Naruto-kun will have done this tragic deed after finding out about the jutsu casted by my unhappy child, and murdered her in a rage. In twenty minutes after you leave, the bodies will be discovered and the alarm sounded. We will contact you when you are needed then," Hiashi said, and Sakura again disguised herself as Naruto, before leaving the house.

'Now´, thought Hiashi, 'all I need to deal with is that bothersome Bolt child. No matter. The curse seal shall deal with him satisfactorily.'

* * *

Suigetsu entered the Hokage quarters in a bundle of nerves. Damn his stupid inherently good nature and Sasuke's influence in making it flourish, he was now stuck right into the lion's den. And there was no way he would be able to pretend he had just been wandering around the Hyuuga compound, even the kid had noticed he was a spy.

"_Who the hell sent you to spy on my family?" Bolt had asked as they navigated through the sewers. _

"_I, I… I'm not a spy, I was just passing by and..."_

"_Cut the crap, waterworks. Nobody could hear what was going on inside, I only know what they talked about from reading their lips," the boy interrupted, glaring at him. "Did anyone send you to kidnap me or something?"_

_Suigetsu had scratched his head. "No," he answered truthfully, "I was there to investigate the Hokage's participation on a corruption scheme," he said, and waved his arms as Bolt turned on him. "I didn't find anything on your dad, kid! Or Nara. That's what was strange about it, cause we got dirt on almost everyone else in the Council and the clans," he explained. "Since it was so damn strange, my boss told me to stay and watch, he thought surely something would come up."_

"_It was a jutsu," the kid muttered. "My mom and… the person that killed her were talking about it. Mom put the Scumbag under a jutsu and that changed him, or something like it."_

"_Genjutsu?" Suigetsu asked, and Bolt shook his head negatively. "If it were a genjutsu I'd have seen it. It was something I've never seen before," he said, "I hate him, but I'm not a scumbag like he is, and I know if he isn't warned about what's going on he'll do something stupid like he always does. But if I can get the idiot to listen, then maybe, just maybe, you and your boss, whoever that is, can find out exactly what's going on and I can escape Hiashi putting the curse seal on me, or worse. Will you help?"_

_Suigetsu had stopped and looked at the boy's stricken face. He was amazed at the child's ability to think at all, let alone communicate in such an articulate manner after seeing half his family get killed right in front of him. But his blue eyes suggested maturity beyond his years, and Suigetsu was used to seeing kids that, as he himself was, had had to recover quickly from trauma, so he sympathized with the boy. Besides, his reasoning was good. Sasuke would indeed be very interested in this development. _

So he had agreed, and here they were.

Shikamaru opened a door, and they entered a spacious living-room with a kitchen in a corner.

Shizune was there, preparing a high-energy concoction to feed Menma, and he raised a hand at her. She gave Bolt a startled look, but said nothing.

"Wait here, I'll call him," Shikamaru said, and moved on down a hallway.

"Wait here my ass," Bolt muttered, and stomped after the Hokage's assistant, passing him and shoving the door the man had touched on open.

"You fucking scumbag you better listen to me now if you want to live _**WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT**_?" Bolt screeched as he saw Naruto and Tsunade beside a double bed, in which a small child's body cracked and moved trying to rebuild itself over.

"Bolt…" Naruto whispered.

"That is the reason your father is in possession of his faculties," Tsunade said. "What the hell are you doing here, kid?"

Bolt sighed, suddenly feeling the weight of what had happened to him.

"Mom is dead. Himawari is dead. That asshole Hiashi killed her. He snapped her neck like she was _nothing_," he said in a broken voice. "You weren't there. You were _never _there, and now they're _dead_, you son of a bitch. And now they're coming for you, and that motherfucker is gonna put the curse seal on me."

Naruto blanched. Hinata was dead? Himawari? How? When? _Hiashi _had killed little Himawari? _**Why**_?

"Who killed Hinata?" Tsunade asked at the same time Shizune and Suigetsu entered the room, and Bolt turned red-rimmed eyes at her. "That stupid Salad's mother. Uchiha Sakura."

"The one under the Naruto henge was _Sakura_?" Suigetsu yelled, his eyes almost popping out of its sockets. "Holy shit Sasuke's gonna have kittens!"

Everyone turned to look at him.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N**: Hi everyone! Thank you so much for the reviews, keep them coming please! :D

Ok I need to explain something here about the kids before people start thinking it's strange when they see their behavior: children are _extremely resilient_. When faced with tragedy, they can snap out of shock and focus on something else faster than adults. I know this firsthand: my grandmother died when I was seven, my father died when I was twelve and my brother was five, and my stepdad died when I was twenty-two and my little sister, his daughter, was five. The younger the child, and the more distant the relationship to the deceased, the easier it is for them to cope. That does not mean they won't grieve or suffer, but that they'll keep a clear head _until they feel safe enough to grieve_. Why does that happen? I'm not sure about humans, but I believe it's a coping mechanism to help kids survive when other people have to take care of them. After all, we are **the** most social species amongst mammals.

That said, onwards with the story :D

* * *

Sakura left the Hyuuga compound with ominous dark clouds covering the village. She smirked on her way; the weather was fitting, and convenient: the rain began as she got near the Hokage Tower, and she was sure the people running for cover saw Naruto walking by them.

She dropped the henge in an empty alley, and left on the other side, humming in the rain.

* * *

Naruto slid down the wall and held his head in his hands.

He couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't even feel. All he could was repeat a circular line of thinking.

'Hinata is dead… Himawari is dead… I wasn't there… I wasn't there and now they're dead and _it's my fault'_

He fell sideways, a deep, guttural moan leaving his lips while the memories of his family haunted him.

'Why? Why? If I knew… oh gods, why?' he thought, remembering his children's births, Himawari's birth… he remembered arriving late because of work with Kakashi, he was already training under the Rokudaime. Hinata hadn't commented, only happy that he had gone to meet their daughter before they were released home. Bolt had been with her, then, she had told him the boy had refused to stay at Hanabi's. Naruto remembered the haunted look his son gave him when he asked the boy why, the two year-old quietly cuddled next to his mother and sister. 'Hiashi… _**Hiashi**_…'

Bolt crossed the room and kicked his father's face with all his strength, and Naruto turned a shocked, tear-stricken gaze to him.

"You can cry when we're gone, Scumbag. When you get me safe from him, you can cry, you can scream, you can find a way to get back at him," the boy said in a venomous voice, "but don't you fucking dare leave _me_, leave _him-_" he pointed at Menma's trembling body, feeling a sense of kinship with the child, "-for that asshole to kill after he gets a hold of you because you felt guilty and decided to act like a stupid idiot. If you go there now the clan will beat the shit out of you and you won't get to prove anything, so stop acting like you're a fucking little kid!"

At that moment, Menma gave a pained moan, his back rising from the mattress, and his body went still.

* * *

In the little boy's mind, Kurama fell out of the sky, landing on his lap.

"I'm sorry kiddo, it just hurt too much," the baby fox mumbled, and the boy hugged him. They were surrounded by the other beasts.

"It's ok," the boy said quietly, and they all fell asleep in a huddle.

* * *

"What do we do now?" Suigetsu asked, after explaining the situation to Shikamaru, Tsunade and Shizune.

"We have to get Naruto out of here. If what you said is true, then they might only come for him, but we can't be sure Sakura won't retaliate. Shizune, please go to Ino's and get her and Inojin to come here. Tell Sai he's supposed to stay there, and then go back to the hospital. Make haste, but be careful. We'll need you as contacts in the village."

Tsunade's eyes widened. "Wait, you intend us all to go with him?"

Shikamaru nodded. "Temari and Shikadai are already on their way to Suna. I had a hunch something like this would happen, but I couldn't act further without confirmation. As soon as Ino and Inojin are here, we'll all leave. Your relationship with Sakura may become a liability, Tsunade-sama. And we'll need a healer."

Bolt looked, alarmed, at the boy. Unbeknownst to the others, but seen by him, nature energy was being drawn in the child's body at an alarming speed. Whatever the Scumbag had done to this kid, he thought, it was making him suffer horrendously. And the energy flow looked…

"Like a wave," Bolt whispered, and his eyes went wide. He took a couple of steps back, watching as the light from the flow of nature energy was drained into the boy's body, focusing on a dark, spinning point on his chest.

Tsunade nodded. "We can use Orochimaru's tunnels, they've been closed at the end outside the village but I can open them," she said, making a fist with her right hand. "I might be but an _old lady_," she sneered, looking at the still shell-shocked Naruto, "but I still got enough spunk in me to help you out."

Bolt's eyes were riveted on Menma's body. "Whatever you are going to do, do it _now_, we don't have time," he said, jumping on the bed as he saw a tiny spark of red begin to form inside the dark spot on Menma's chest. He picked the boy up and turned to Shizune.

"Go get whoever's coming _**NOW**_!" he yelled, and teleported away.

Shizune nodded and ran out.

* * *

Bolt dropped the still body on the floor and ran to get his disguise pack from under a stone, before teleporting back.

Lightning struck the Nanadaime's rock face, cracking it open all the way vertically through the middle.

"What the..." Shikamaru began, and the earth shook with a mighty boom.

They all threw themselves to the floor.

Outside, Shizune held herself upwards with chakra, as she ran to the Yamanaka's. People were busy trying to get up after the tremor, scared and confused, and Shizune thanked the gods for Naruto's freakish bout of good luck.

"Ino-san!" she called out as she entered the flower shop, and Ino came up from behind the counter, picking up debris from her hair. "Get Inojin and go to the Hokage's quarters right now, it's not safe in Konoha anymore," she said, and raised her hand to stop Ino from interrupting her. "Is Sai-san in?" she asked, and Ino nodded, still confused.

"Take me to him, I'll explain to him what is going on, but please, please gather Inojin and run, Tsunade-sama will tell you what happened! Hurry!"

* * *

Inside the mountain, a small breath went unheard amongst the tremors.

Menma opened his eye, but didn't see anything. He closed it again, musing on the inutility of the Juubi having an eye when it was blind.

He stood up carefully, still dizzy from the final merging. He knew all that the nine tailed beasts knew, now, and held all their memories. Their individual selves were safe, facets of the prism his soul had become. He was still himself as well as the product of the joining of their individual minds, though, and that was a relief. His own newness to the world helped him adapt to his blindness almost instantaneously.

He turned around as soon as he knew the boy (kin, friend, companion) had materialized behind him.

"You survived," Bolt said, impressed and relieved, and Menma nodded. "Can you teleport back by yourself?"

Menma made a pleading face. "Nope," he said. "Dunno much left from right yet. Can you help me out, please? Erm… I think I'm not gonna blow up again."

Bolt snickered. "Che, aren't you useless, boy," he mocked, while holding on to the (as big as him now) boy, who gaped at him. "My name is Uzumaki Menma, and I'm not useless, you ass, it's not my fault I'm blind, and," he started, and they teleported.

"If I didn't exist your dad would still be a retard pawn on other people's hands!" Menma finished, back at the bedroom.

Bolt made a noncommittal sound and pulled the boy forward, ignoring the shocked gazes of the others upon them. "Can you stand by yourself?" he asked, while opening his backpack and pulling out a change of clothes.

"Yeah. Uh, hi, everyone," Menma said, while pulling his pants on. "I'm stable now, me and the beasts finished merging. Thank you all so much for taking care of me."

"What happened?" Tsunade asked, and came closer to examine the boy, but took a step back when he turned his head away from her before she could touch his eye.

"I'm ok. Just blind, but uh, I think I can find my way around stuff," he said. "Thanks, baa-chan."

Bolt got up and yanked the shirt off the younger boy's hands. "It's back to front, stupid," he growled, and helped him put it on. "I saw nature energy building up on him, so I got him out before he blew up and us with him," the young Uzumaki said. "Are we gonna sit here like ducks or what?"

"How?" Naruto whispered, stunned.

"When I turned seven Hiashi tried putting the curse seal on me. Mom didn't let him and he beat the shit out of her in front of me instead," Bolt explained, while tying up his black headband over Menma's eye, not looking at his father. "As I saw that happen, my eyes began hurting, I blinked and then all of a sudden I could see _everything._ Chakra, all kinds of energy, people's insides, like… layers, _all_ the layers that make things what they are," he said. "Every detail, too, even from movement. All the time. I thought maybe it was the Byakugan but it didn't work like what mom had told me it did, it _never_ turned off. I was scared, so I started trying to tell you about it, but you were always _too busy_ to talk to me, so after I vandalized your face and you still didn't even _ask_ what the fuck was wrong with me, I gave up."

Suigetsu held back a gasp as he saw the dark-haired boy with his eye covered. 'Could this be?' he thought, noting the shocking resemblance.

"After a while I realized I could tell when people were lying or telling the truth by watching what parts of their brain lit up. And every time you said you loved mom, _you were lying_," Bolt sneered at Naruto. "When you said the whole village was your family, you were lying too. So I decided to study what was going on with me by myself. I went to the library and studied all the medicine scrolls, and the history of the different doujutsu, so I could try and understand what happened to me, because it was driving me _insane."_

"Bolt…" Naruto began, but the boy interrupted him.

"Do you have any idea what it is to look at people and see their fucking insides? To know when they're telling the truth or lying to you? To start remembering _every_ damn thing you ever see? To know when someone is sick? I lost all sense of beauty or recognition because I became this fucking freak. I had to learn how to recognize people all over again, and I had to lie every time mom, Himawari or anyone asked me how they looked. What the hell was I supposed to tell them? "Oh, sure, your _liver_ looks great today, mom"? "Sure Hima, I can't say much about your hair but your _sinuses_ look perfect"? That wouldn't have gone down too well, would it, _Scumbag_?"

Naruto blanched. "I had no idea…"

"_Of course._ While I still thought I could try _talking_ to you, I started to mess around trying to see what I could do with this shit. Turns out I can copy any jutsu I see people doing, because I can't fucking NOT see and remember the seals, or the way the seals drive and module the person's chakra for the jutsu to work. So I started training by myself, _alone,_ in secret. I wanted to show you, Scumbag, so I could prove to you I was serious. I knew if I let everyone know about it I'd be in trouble," Bolt continued.

"Sharingan," Shikamaru said, and the boy nodded.

"Hiashi would be the first to yell that, and I'd be screwed. He already hated me because I didn't lick his feet like everyone else in the clan, and he'd definitely want to "study" my eyes," he said, making quote marks with his fingers for emphasis, "especially since it looks more like a combination of the Sharingan and the Byakugan, but to be honest I think it's something completely different because none of the doujutsu, as far as I read, can see _everything_ clearly all the time, and I do. I also can't see things behind me. So my only hope to understand what was going on was you. And then I had nothing, because you couldn't spare the time to talk to your own stupid kid. Hah. And now we're all here, and I find out you were using this other kid," he said, pointing at Menma while giving Naruto a furious glare.

"He didn't know what he was doing," Menma interrupted him, and he turned angry eyes to the blind boy. "My parents… they tried to kill me when I was born, because of this," Menma said, pointing to his concealed eye. "He didn't let them do it, and took me in. But his body sucked my chakra on its own, and I was too small to survive that, so the beasts helped me. It's not his fault."

Suigetsu covered his face with a hand, his suspicion confirmed. Kittens? Forget that, Sasuke would have freaking tiger cubs when he knew about this…

Ino arrived then, with a startled-looking Inojin at her side. "Shizune-san told me to meet you here."

Shikamaru nodded. "We can continue discussing this after we're safe. Tsunade-sama, we'll be on your care while we travel through Orochimaru's tunnels, but where do we go from there?"

Suigetsu carefully raised a hand. "We can at first hide on one of Orochimaru's hideouts… uh, Sasuke said he didn't tell you where all of them were," he said, carefully studying their expressions, and hoping they'd go along with his idea. No matter what Sasuke had tried before, he reckoned keeping the Uchiha's son safe was his number one priority. "Well, sorry, but considering all that's happened I think he was right to take that precaution, ya know."

Naruto stood up, walked to Bolt and Menma, and kneeled in front of the two boys. "I am sorry, Bolt. And I swear on my name I'll never neglect you again. Neither of you," he said truthfully.

"Hn," Bolt grunted, but nodded in quiet acquiescence of his father's honesty.

Naruto stood again. "Let's move out."

* * *

Hiashi stood up and yelled out in fury as the woman he had sent to call on Hinata told him of what she had seen at the Uzumaki household.

"My daughter! My oldest, precious child!" he screamed. "Sound the alarm! Call the ANBU! Find Bolt!"

Hanabi came running into the main house. "Father, what happened?"

"Your sister… and poor little Himawari," Hiashi sobbed, "they are dead!"

Hanabi fainted.

* * *

When the Hokage's party reached midway through Orochimaru's tunnels, Menma poked Suigetsu's shoulder. "I can run on my own now, thank you."

"Aren't you blind, boy?" the spy asked, still running with the boy on his back.

"Um, yeah, kind of. But I know where things are. Please let me down, it'll help you out," the ugly little Uchiha explained politely, and Suigetsu let him down, shrugging. "Suit yourself, I'm not stopping for you, though," he said, before taking off again.

The boy quickly overtook him, running so fast he could only see him as a blur.

"Yo," Menma called to Bolt, who was running at the front of the queue, and grinned toothily at him. "Not that useless anymore, huh?" he snickered, and the Uzumaki boy gave him an unimpressed side look.

"You know people might catch you by sensing those chakra pulses, right?" he said, and Menma pouted.

"Damn know-it-all, it's not like I can help it," he muttered, as another pulse of nature energy entered him, converted into chakra, and pulsed out again.

"Still useless. And slow," Bolt sneered, running faster.

"Why you little!" Menma yelled, speeding up.

It took them an hour to reach the end of the tunnel. Naruto let Tsunade down so the former Godaime could smash the blocked exit open, and they continued running, with the two boys at the vanguard, Naruto carrying Tsunade on his back and Ino carrying Inojin.

"Can you do something with what the beasts gave you or are you _completely_ useless?" Bolt asked Menma, who huffed at him.

"What do you want?"

"We need something that hides us from the old ninjas. Most of the guards are shit, but I'll bet by now the gig is up and people know the Scumbag is out of the building," Bolt explained as they took to the trees.

"Hmmm," Menma grunted, and searched through his memories. He nodded, and pulled up his headband, exposing his eye. "Don't look at it directly," he warned Bolt, and opened it.

"Bolt!" Naruto yelled, as his son disappeared in front of him.

"Shut up and look down!" Menma said in an unnaturally loud voice, turning around to face the others.

Naruto saw a flash of fire, and averted his eyes. The others did the same, their training kicking in instinctively.

Menma twirled around while jumping, and resumed his running.

"Show off," Bolt muttered, and the little brunet snickered.

"Told ya I wasn't useless, you jackass!"

* * *

It was after breakfast the next morning, and Sasuke was cataloguing all the documents his spies had gathered from the electronic communications between the five Kage.

"Papa! Papa!" Salad yelled, and he turned to see the little girl running down the stairs to the farm house's basement.

"Don't scream," he chided her absentmindedly, and she skidded to a halt, blushing furiously. "I'm sorry. Uh, Mama is on tv, I thought you'd want to see it, they're saying the Hokage killed his family!"

Sasuke's eyes went wide, and he hurried upstairs after her.

Juugo was standing in front of the tv set in the living room, still with a plate and a dishcloth in his hands, gaping.

"… _the Hokage has not been located to answer the accusations, and Uzumaki Bolt is still missing, presumed dead as well. The daimyo of the Fire Country has been informed of the tragedy befallen Konoha, and the Konoha Council has put an order to retrieve the following persons, missing and suspected dead, kidnapped, or aiding in the Nanadaime's escape after murders of Hyuuga Hinata and Uzumaki Himawari: Senju Tsunade, Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino and young Yamanaka Inojin. Also wanted for questioning about his possible involvement in the crimes is Uchiha Sasuke, who was last seen_," the news anchor's voice went on, as pictures of the suspects appeared on the screen.

"What the fuck?" Sasuke growled, and Juugo reflexively held him back before he could hit the television set in his fury.

Salad looked up at her Papa, and back at the tv.

"_We are here with Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, representing the Konoha Council. Mitokado-san, what are the measures the Council is taking to capture the presumed fugitive Nanadaime and his supposed allies? Have you been able to gather the motive of the crime_?" the reporter asked, and Sasuke snarled as the hateful figure of Homura filled the screen.

"_We have instated the Hachidaime Hokage, Haruno Sakura, as an emergency basis, since neither the Godaime nor the Rokudaime are available to take the criminal Uzumaki Naruto's place. We will let her inform you of what the ANBU has found out_," he said, and stepped back, while Sakura took a step forward.

"_I would like to ask the population to remain calm. ANBU is tracking the fugitive and any potential accomplices, and we have already informed the other Kage of this tragic incident, so they can put their own ANBU squads on alert for Naruto's presence. As for the motive_," Sakura said calmly, and Sasuke noticed the hard glint in her eye, "_we have gathered that Yamanaka-san had been ordered by the Hokage to investigate a supposed misuse of forbidden jutsu, and one of the people she interrogated was the late Hyuuga Hinata. Apparently, that caused a discussion between the former Nanadaime and his wife at their home, and in a bout of fury he attacked both her and their unfortunate child, before leaving the Hyuuga compound. We have testimonies of civilians and ninja who saw him heading to the Hokage Tower, and as ANBU searched it after Hyuuga-sama sounded the alarm, they found the guards and personnel stationed there under an intricate genjutsu_,"

A collective murmur formed around Sakura, and she glared at the people present until they went quiet. "_We also know that in the Tower at the time of the murder were the former Godaime, Tsunade-sama, the Nanadaime's assistant, Nara Shikamaru, and that sometime after the Nanadaime was seen on his way to the Tower Yamanaka Ino and her son Inojin were seen going that way. We do not know yet what happened to those people, as their bodies were not found, or the whereabouts of Uzumaki Bolt. We do know, however, that Uzumaki Naruto is extremely dangerous and that his actions are currently unpredictable. Due to the high level of genjutsu under which the guards had been, we – I – humbly ask for my ex-husband, Uchiha Sasuke, to attend at the ANBU headquarters by tomorrow, as a preventative measure to avoid wrongful accusations of involvement. We are currently monitoring all electronic and telephone communications to and from the village. Any information from the population in regards to any of the missing people's whereabouts will be duly rewarded, of course,_" Sakura finished her speech, an almost imperceptible smirk on her lips, and left, with two ANBU opening the way for her and the Council.

Sasuke sat down on the couch, speechless. Sakura was the Hokage? _Naruto had killed his wife and child?_

"This can't be right," Juugo said after turning off the tv set, and sitting on a chair across from the Uchiha. "I don't know Naruto that much, but… he wouldn't do that, would he?"

Sasuke shook his head slowly, while Salad cried softly. The Uchiha girl had seen Himawari walking around with her mother a few times, and seen how lovingly the Hyuuga had acted with her. And the Nanadaime had always seemed stern, but nice. He had even given the Academy students a show of his signature jutsu, the Rasengann and the Kage-bunshin, on the admittance day. Salad couldn't understand what could make the man kill his own family. Or why Mama had told Papa to go back to Konoha. Didn't she trust Papa? She shivered, remembering Mama's last words to her. She knew Mama would do anything to have Papa back, and that Mama didn't want her. What would happen to Salad if Papa went to jail or something else happened to him?

"Papa? Please… please don't go to Konoha," she asked, wiping her tears with her sleeves.

"Come here, kid," Juugo called, and she went to sit on his lap. "Don't worry, nothing wrong is going to happen," he soothed her, but she shook her head firmly.

"If you go back to Konoha Mama won't let you leave her side. Please, please don't leave me," she pleaded, and Sasuke stared at her.

"Why do you say that?" he asked, and Salad lowered her tearful eyes.

"She cast me out because she thought you were mad at her because of my bad eyes," she explained. "She told me to go live with granpa and granma because she loves you more. Please, father, don't go, I like living with you," she murmured.

Sasuke closed his eyes, his head spinning with all the information.

'What the hell did you do, usuratonkachi?' he thought, running his hand through his hair.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N**: Hi everyone!

A little explanation since lots of you asked what exactly happened to Menma last chapter:

Menma has fully merged with the tailed beasts. He and them are now the same being, he has their memories and attributes from each of their personalities. They still live as "different" beings but only as different sides of his fractal personality. It is somewhat like Aang and Korra from the Avatar series, and more precisely like Alia from the Dune series, as Menma is no longer _just_ a child anymore, because he carries the beasts' experience of maturity.

Oh, by the way, there is nothing entirely surprising happening on this chapter. If you feel confused by one specific bit of information, please refer to chapter 3, it is explained there.

As always, please review, I hope the confusion begins to clear with this chapter.

* * *

They reached Orochimaru's nearest hideout a couple of hours after sunset.

It was located underground at one of the few large forests left in the Fire Country, and they entered it through an entrance hidden behind a waterfall. Suigetsu stopped to turn on the power circuit.

"This place's power comes from the waterfall," he explained nervously as he led them down the winding ramp. "It's not attached to the official power grid like some out of the Fire Country, so you don't have to worry. There's running water too, but there isn't any kind of artificial heating, so we should stay at the lower levels as the winter progresses, they are much better insulated."

It took them five minutes to reach the first underground level, and Suigetsu led them further without stopping. "This one is just a mock floor full of traps, in case of enemy infiltration," he continued explaining. "Next level is where they left the more aggressive experiment failures so that if someone survived the traps in the first level and tried releasing any prisoners they'd be killed by those. They, um… we put them down when we came to set this place up after the war before Sasuke set up a base of operations within Konoha City," he said, scratching his elbows.

Bolt and Inojin gave a curious look to the hallways before descending, but Shikamaru noticed Menma reach out for Tsunade's hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. She looked down at him, startled, but squeezed back and let him pull her forward.

They passed two more levels before reaching the living quarters level. It was one single hallway crossing from the south to the north of the ramp, and although the air was stale, the temperature was comfortable enough for those who had them to shed their coats.

"Um, refectory and bathrooms are at the far end," Suigetsu said. "There are four bedrooms, a meeting room and a library. "Uh, Orochimaru's quarters are that way," he pointed to the other end of the hallway as he muttered.

Everyone decided to leave those alone.

* * *

Naruto found Menma walking around the hideout's fourth level a couple of hours later.

The child had found a training room of sorts, with weapons and other equipment at the back, and was playing with a small rubber ball, kicking it against the walls and trying to catch it when it bounced back.

"Menma?" Naruto asked, and the boy stopped, turning his head to him while his left hand caught the ball effortlessly.

"Yeah?"

Naruto approached and sat on the floor in front of the boy. "Why didn't you want to stay with me and Bolt?"

The boy shrugged and sat down. "Figured he needs some alone time with you," he said, and reached for Naruto's hand. "Look, you don't have to worry, I mean… I never had any family besides you, I know that now. And you're still here. But he lost his mom and his little sister, and he thinks he never had you in the first place. I remember him looking at you when he was really little, and how his face changed through the years every time you pushed him away. And I know that it's not all your fault you did that, but he won't be sure of that unless you prove to him he's the most important thing to you now."

Naruto blinked. Even as used to the beasts' powers and how they influenced someone as he was, it was still baffling to see a little kid talking like that. "You..." He paused, reflecting about what Menma had just said. "You can remember that because of Kurama?"

Menma nodded. "I… I _am_ Kurama too now. And he is me, as well as the others. What I'm trying to say is that… I'm a little kid, but I'm not just a little kid. Because I'm so young I didn't really have time to form an opinion on anything much. To me, everything is still… new, even though I have these memories. So maybe you might think I'm being kinda cold or stupid, but-" He was interrupted by Naruto pulling him into his arms.

He was startled to feel tears wet his cheeks when Naruto kissed them.

"Don't cry!" he said, and felt his way to Naruto's face. "Please don't cry, Papa, I ain't going nowhere. I just want you and Bolt to make up so he can have you too. And now even if I can't see anymore I can do stuff by myself, and Ino-chan is here, and Tsunade baa-chan, and Shika-kun, you don't have to worry about me," he said, and smiled. "Besides, maybe if you guys make up Bolt might stop acting like his dango stick fell on the floor all the time."

Naruto chuckled, and hugged him closer. "I just don't want you to feel alone, so promise me you won't isolate yourself from me, 'cause I need you too, ok?"

"Alone? I can't ever be alone anymore, I got nine people living in my head talking all the time! I mean, eight, Choumei just squeaks," Menma said, showing the number on his fingers. "And I told you, I ain't going nowhere," he repeated, smiling, returning the hug and yawning.

"How about I take you downstairs to baa-chan so you can sleep then? Yeah, yeah, I promise to tuck Bolt in too, he's sleeping in my room, remember?" Naruto said when Menma raised his head. The boy nodded quietly, and Naruto stood up, still carrying him.

When he reached Tsunade's room, he stood in front of the door a second, before going in, and looked down at the boy, who had fallen asleep on the way. "Thank you, son. And I promise Bolt won't get jealous of you," he whispered, and entered the darkened room, tucking the boy in the sleeping bag besides the bed, before leaving to his own room.

Bolt was curled up into his sleeping bag at the farthest corner, facing the wall.

Naruto sat heavily on the bed. "I know you're up, Bolt. Can we talk?" he asked with a tired voice.

"About what?" Bolt asked quietly, still burrowed under the covers.

Naruto sighed deeply. "Look. If you can see everything like you said, can't you see what happened to me? Can't you see I'm different from before? Please give me a chance to clear things up, I… I don't want to lose you before I've ever actually had you, son."

Bolt's sleeping bag moved up against the wall like a caterpillar, and when the boy turned to face him, only a mop of blond hair and half-covered eyes could be seen through the opening.

"Whatever you and mom had going on had nothing to do with me. Or with imouto*. Why should I believe you really care about me?"

Naruto slid down to the floor and sat with his legs crossed. "Look, what happened was… your mom was in love with me when we were young, but… I didn't really want to be more than her friend. I didn't want to be more than friends with anyone, back then… but something happened when we went on a mission that tampered with my mind, a jutsu…"

"I know," Bolt said quietly, "it's what mom and Uchiha-san were talking about, before she… before…" he swallowed hard to break the knot forming on his throat. Naruto's eyes went wide.

"Uchiha-san told mom that she couldn't tell you about the jutsu because you'd take away her freedom," Bolt heaved out with a strangled breath. "And mom said… mom said she couldn't hide it from you because you'd send her to Ibiki-san. She said she was tired of lying… that she manipulated you… but that she wanted to tell you because she loved you, she… she believed you'd understand her," he sobbed. "And then Uchiha-san stabbed her with a kunai, and I was outside looking at everything and I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything, and Hiashi… Hiashi came in carrying imouto and he said he was going to offer Uchiha-san something… and to accept his proof of trust, and then he just… he just snapped Hima's neck, and I can't… I can't… I can't sleep… _I can't close my eyes_, I see him doing that again and again and _again_ and I'm not even sorry for _them_, I'm just afraid because I know he's right there and he's coming after _me_!" he finished in a pained yell, grabbing his own chest and falling forward; Naruto caught him in his arms, hugging the boy as he started hyperventilating.

"Bolt, look at me, look at me," Naruto said, holding his face up and pulling one of his arms out of the sleeping bag. "Come on son, breathe with me, ok? I'm gonna count, you're gonna breathe with dad, ok? One," Naruto said, and took a slow breath, holding the boy's hand against his own chest. "Two," he said, and breathed again; "Three… keep your eyes on me, I've had the same thing and this worked, breathe with dad," he pleaded, and repeated the exercise over and over.

Bolt finally calmed down and took a deep, sobbing breath before yawning, and Naruto snuggled him against his chest, humming a tune he had learned when the boy had been born, and wondering why, why, _why_ had Hinata put him under that jutsu, and why, why, _why_ had the damn jutsu not only brainwashed him into falling in love with her, but into becoming such a bad father? He could remember being close to Bolt when he was a baby, having enjoyed taking care of his son, playing with him, watching him take his first wobbly steps, arguing with Hiashi when his father-in-law had scolded him for "spoiling" him, and arguing with Hinata when she told him it was improper for him to help her take care of their baby girl… had Hinata's antiquated views on parenthood based on her clan tradition made her push him away from his own children?

He could hardly remember correctly how long had it been since he had started to view his social status, his position as Hokage, as more important than his own children, but he could remember Hinata's face one day, when he had sent a clone to a meeting instead of going himself, so he could take the children out for ramen at Ichiraku's. It was near his birthday, he remembered the festival lights being put up around the village.

It was the last time he had done such a thing. Speaking of which, it was also the last time he had gone to Ichiraku's...

Naruto felt a pang of guilt. How long was it since he had last since old man Teuchi and Ayame-chan, five, six years?

He stood up carefully and laid his sleeping son on the bed, carefully embracing him and promising himself to take both Bolt and Menma to Ichiraku's as soon as this whole mess was over with.

"I promise, ttebayo," he whispered as he fell asleep.

* * *

Tsunade walked into the refectory the next morning, pulling a half-asleep Menma by her hand.

"Good morning shichou, good morning Menma!" Ino said from the counter, where she was pouring oatmeal into bowls with Inojin sitting on it cross-legged by her side. The boy looked curiously at the blindfolded, grumbling kid dragging his bare feet next to the Godaime, and greeted them as well.

"G' mohnin'," Menma grumbled, feeling for one of the tall chairs next to the counter and clumsily trying to climb one.

"Mornin'," Tsunade greeted sleepily, pulling the blind boy up. "Don't fall asleep, kid, you'll fall headfirst. Did y'all get any sleep? Where's Shikamaru?"

Inojin shook his head. "Ouch, mom! Why didja do that?" he complained when Ino knocked on his head.

"Shika will probably sleep until someone kicks him out of bed," she said.

Bolt had woken up screaming many times during that night from night terrors, but Tsunade had stopped everyone from intervening so Naruto could take care of him alone. It had been so heartbreaking, Suigetsu had quietly entered Tsunade and Menma's room and hidden under her bed, sobbing quietly until the blind boy had cuddled next to him.

The mist nin had finally fallen asleep an hour ago.

Inojin picked up the bowl his mother gave him, and stretched one leg to leap off the counter, but the little brunet hugged it before he could move. "Hey, leggo of my leg!"

Menma snickered, and hugged it closer, laying his head on the counter. "Leggo my leggo!" he joked, and Inojin burst into laughter.

"Ok, that was funny," the blond boy conceded. "Why are your eyes covered?" he asked, and Menma raised his head to him.

"Oh, that's 'cause I can't see anymore, so Bolt gave this to me. Ain't it cool tho? I can be the masked ninja!" the boy said animatedly before the two women could say anything, and Inojin's eyes widened.

"Mooooom, can I be a masked ninja too?" the little Yamanaka asked, turning pleading eyes to Ino, who laughed.

"That depends, can you find your way around things without seeing like Menma does?" she asked, and the boy pursed his lips.

"No…" he said dejectedly, but then looked at the other boy with an expectant expression. "Hey Menma, you think you can teach me how to move around like you? I can teach you taijutsu and stuff Shino-sensei taught us at school!"

Menma turned his head at Tsunade and fidgeted. "Baa-chan, can we go upstairs so Inojin can teach me stuff at the playroom I found yesterday? I can show him how I find my way around… please?"

Tsunade finished loading a large bowl of oatmeal with enough honey to feed a swarm of bees, and pushed it into the kid's hands. "Sure, brat, why not? But after you eat, ok?"

"Ok! Thank you, baa-chan!" both boys exclaimed, and immediately started discussing with each other, tuning out the adults.

Ino and Tsunade dragged their feet to one of the nearby tables, carrying each a large cup of coffee.

"Good thing there were a few non-perishable supplies here, I'd have dreaded to get out and foraged in the cold," Ino said, and Tsunade nodded.

The two boys finished their breakfast and got off the counter, Inojin helping still-sleepy Menma down, both talking animatedly, like all little boys anywhere, as if they had been friends since birth.

A grumbling, blanket-draped Suigetsu appeared at the doorway, looking lost and famished.

"Breakfast?" Ino asked with a smile, rising from the table, and the spy nodded quietly as he entered, only to have two excited boys barrel into him on their way out.

"Whass gotten into 'em?" he grumbled, leaning on the counter. "Uh, can you get me some water please, I forgot my night bottle…" he asked, looking pasty.

Ino nodded and gave him a jar full, a cup and pointed to where Tsunade was slumped. "Go sit over there, I'll get you some food," she said, and shushed him with a hand as he thanked her meekly. "Nonsense, I'm used to waking up in the middle of the night like this, Sai often has nightmares too."

"See, it's not just you, Bolt," a male voice said, and Ino looked at the doorway to see Naruto leading a very embarrassed-looking young Uzumaki.

"Hi guys, I made us some oatmeal," Ino said, and Naruto groaned dejectedly. "What, no ramen?"

"Is it me or the cheerfulness seems a little forced?" Suigetsu whispered to Tsunade, as Naruto and Bolt waited at the counter.

"With kids this age it's better to keep up an appearance of normalcy to help them recover from nightmares; as to the other boys, well, they're little boys, playing is a way to form social bonds and cope with emotional issues," the Godaime said. "Right now it's more important for us that they burn their energy than train, and the fox will keep an eye on them."

"Oh," Suigetsu said, and then choked on his water. "_**Who?**_" he shouted, slapping his own chest.

"Kurama," Naruto said as he, Ino and his son sat beside them, carrying their food. He gave Suigetsu a serious look. "The nine beasts fused with him to save his life," he explained.

Suigetsu's eyes went as wide as saucers. "You made an _Uchiha_ the jinchuuriki for the nine tailed beasts? Are you fucking _**CRAZY**_? Didja forget what happened last time?"

"I thought you were working for an Uchiha," Ino deadpanned, and Suigetsu sputtered.

"Lo-look, I love Sasuke like my own blood, but duuuuude! I mean… whoa, man, come _on_!" he opened his hands in a shocked gesture. "He's not the sanest person I know, like, by far, and he's the most _normal_ person out of that clan! Remember Madara? Obito? Remember how _powerful_ Obito was when he was the Juubi's jinchuuriki?"

"He's not a jinchuuriki," Bolt said quietly between spoonfuls of his oatmeal. "The beasts aren't inside him, they and him are a third different thing now," he added, and Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, uh… he told me he's the Juubi itself now," the Nanadaime explained.

Suigetsu's eyes rolled back and he slipped off the chair, liquefying as he fainted.

* * *

Juugo went out the back of the house and quietly knocked on the old outhouse, turned obsolete by the new in-house bathroom facilities. "Sasuke?" he asked quietly, concern evident in his voice.

A small retching noise was heard from inside. "Go back inside, I'm fine," the Uchiha answered him weakly.

Juugo deposited the steaming kettle he was carrying beside the door. "I got you some water and a cloth. I'll go check on Salad," he said in the same quiet tone and left, shaking his head.

The door opened a fraction and a pale hand pulled the kettle and washcloth inside.

Sasuke pushed the door closed and leaned against the wall again, still too dizzy to stand, the stench of blood and disinfectant filling the small enclosure.

He took small breaths while pouring the hot water over the washcloth with his eyes closed.

Today, he realized, was going to be a bad day. He knew he had it coming, though.

Sasuke had been able to hide his illness from everyone for nearly a decade, but in the past two years since Juugo had first caught him being sick he had more and more frequently begged the Uchiha to seek medical help, to no avail. So the man had taken to study medical jutsu himself, to try relieving his friend's condition.

Sasuke had been taking monthly sessions of healing chakra from him for the last fourteen months. It was enough to stop the internal bleeding and keep the disease in check.

But he knew very well he would eventually run out of time, and honestly he had been looking forward to it.

He wouldn't hasten his death; he had promised not to kill himself, and he was a man of his word. He had never promised to avoid a natural death, though, and he was tired, _so tired_.

He had seen the world, witnessed as his clan had been mocked and his own role in it had been completely dismissed, as the changes he had yearned for had never happened and injustice had become even more rampant than before, as his most important person had coldly turned his back and forgotten him, as the woman he had once regarded as family had not only never grown out of her childish ways but had shown to not care about him as a person, only as an object, a status trophy, even after he had married her and fathered her child.

All he had wanted before he died was to finally expose the corruption within the system, avenging his clan at last. He had desperately tried to find the thread that connected Naruto to the damn scheme; however, now… now the idiot had finally dug his own grave. 'Good riddance', Sasuke thought, cleaning his mouth and gargling on the water when he felt a little more clear-headed.

One more trip to the cursed city and Ayame and the others would be able to proceed without him. And Juugo would be a much better parent for his wretched child than he or Sakura could ever be.

He stood up on unsteady legs, and made his way back to the house.

* * *

Salad was having breakfast when her Papa entered the house, and called Juugo to the library, where she had been sleeping in a cot ever since they had arrived at the farm, closing the door after them.

She washed her few dishes and sat in the living room to read the book she had started the previous evening, but was startled by the raised voices coming from the two men.

The argument had been short, however. A couple quiet hours later, Juugo left the library and entered his own room, and twenty minutes afterwards, he came into the living-room, sitting on the couch next to her.

"Salad, can I ask you a favor, please?" the kind man asked her, and she nodded. "I need to go to the city to run some errands. Can you cook and take care of your dad for a few days?" he said, and she nodded again, before looking at him reservedly.

"Is he mad because you fought?" she asked. "He always left home when he and Mama fought before."

Juugo ran a hand kindly through her hair, and shook his head. "We didn't fight, we just argued because your Papa can be stubborn sometimes. Don't worry, he won't leave you alone. I'll be back soon, would you like something from the city?"

"Hmmm," she thought, and pushed her glasses up her nose. "Can you get me some ramen noodles please? Oh, and tell Ayame-chan I said hi," she asked, and Juugo laughed before kissing her forehead.

"Sure. I'll be back soon. Take care!"

Salad's Papa was still in the library when he left.

* * *

**A/N**:

· * Imouto = little sister


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N**

Hi everyone!

Damn, I didn't expect you'd be so moved by Sasuke's illness. Thank you all for the great reviews :D

To **Holie**: thank you so much for your review. I'm afraid I can't do much for the use of coarse language by the characters who do it because that's a tool for them to relieve stress. And they undergo a lot of it. Some of them have a dirtier mouth because they live in a perpetual state of mental stress - Bolt is the prime example of that due to the things he's forced to see whenever he comes in contact with other people or looks at himself, since, unlike with Byakugan or Sharingan users, Bolt's doujutsu works all the time. So the use of swearing is mostly a coping mechanism, not gratuitous.

Thanks again for the reviews, please keep them coming!

* * *

At a small house in the outskirts of Kumogakure, Killer B pulled on a beanie and closed his warmest cloak around himself, before picking up his travel bag.

'I don't know what the hell is going on, but Naruto, ya got some explainin' to do, mon,' he thought, before closing his door and quietly leaving in the morning winter fog.

* * *

It took Menma and Inojin two days to make Bolt play with them, but in the third morning, the blond Uzumaki appeared in the training-room-turned-playground right as the brunet was kicking a ball for the running Yamanaka to catch.

He was so shocked to see Bolt there, the ball knocked him down.

"Oh crap, who did I hit?" Menma asked, waving his head between the two with a comical lost expression in his face. "Come on guys, I know one of you is standing, scaring the blind is mean, dammit!"

Both blonds blurted out laughing, and the ugly little Uchiha put his hand over his heart and gave a relieved huff, before joining them.

Four hours later, the adults discussing their next moves in the refectory all turned towards the entrance at the sound of playful boyish banter, and Naruto nearly cried in relief as he saw his son enter the large room as filthy with sweat and round marks of grime, and also as laughing and teasing as the other two boys.

"Oh no you didn't!" Menma exclaimed, covering his mouth.

"Yep, I did," Inojin said with a smug grin.

"What do they look like, dude? Been wanting to see that since forever!" Bolt asked curiously.

"Are they bug ones? Like Choumei's?"

"Wait, didn't you say they looked like babies?" Bolt asked Menma, and the blind boy nodded. "Caterpillars have eyes, dude," he explained, and Inojin's eyes bulged. "Caterpillars have eyes? Where? I never seen them, some of them got spots where they should be but those ain't real bug eyes!"

"They're right on top of their mouth, their real head is bent down like this," Menma said, touching his chest with his chin, and the other boys ooohed at him.

"So, does your bug teacher have bug eyes or what?" he asked again.

"Well, as I said, I used the Mind Transfer Jutsu and Chouchou stayed behind taking care of my body cause Shikadai is a boring ass and didn't wanna help, and then I went to the bathroom…"

"And?" the other boys asked expectantly.

"...got in front of a mirror…"

"_And?_"

"...took those weird goggles off…"

"_Aaand?_" by then, Bolt and Menma were huddling in excitement and fear.

"...and his eyes were…"

"_Dammit Inojin!_"

"Brown."

The other boys jumped, screaming, but then Bolt gave him a double take. "Wait, what? That's it?"

"Yup. _Major_ disappointment. He's nearsighted as hell tho, I had to scrunch his nose in the mirror to see well. And he gets migraines from light too, when I looked around the bathroom his head hurt so bad I was thrown out," Inojin said dejectedly, and the other boys aaawed, before sympathetically slapping his back.

"Well, if you had asked me, I would've told you that and you wouldn't have had to go through all that trouble," Ino said as they approached the adult's table.

"Wait, you've seen Shino's eyes?" Naruto asked with a betrayed look on his face. "And you didn't tell me?"

"Well, yeah I knew, Chouji tripped him once at the onsen and his glasses fell out. It was effective, but he was picking bugs out of his ass crack for a week afterwards, Shino was so mad. Did he find out about you, son?" she asked, and the boy shook his head, the three boys laughing. "Good boy, points for stealth right there," she praised, and they high-fived.

"Now go take a bath you three little pigs, or else no lunch for you," she scolded, and the boys huffed, but started dragging their feet out to comply, Ino and Naruto following them with their eyes.

Right as she went back to talking, Naruto saw Menma raise one thumb up behind him, and smiled gratefully.

* * *

"It has been three days. Where are they?" Sakura growled from her seat at the Hokage's desk.

Utatane Koharu gave her a condescending smirk. "Do not worry, your Sasuke-kun will be delivered to you as promised as soon as possible. As of now, our spy network is working to find those who are the real threat, the Nanadaime and his cohorts. The neighboring nations and the other four elemental countries will, of course, detain the Uchiha upon sight, but we have to give him some leeway. After all, he _is_ crippled and traveling with a civilian child."

"Salad is a ninja."

"With no ninja abilities whatsoever, if her teacher's observations are correct. So she must be considered a hindrance to her father's movements. So," Koharu smirked again, "wherever they are, they are close enough to Konoha that they cannot move without being seen. And we are quite sure they have no interest whatsoever in the Nanadaime's plight. That means that even if your ex-husband does suspect your intention, and decides not to present himself, he is pigeonholed. Be patient."

Sakura frowned. She was, of course, anxious to get her hands on Naruto's party, especially since he still had a strong enough influence in at least two other allied leaderships – both the Raikage and the Kazekage had reacted with worry about the news from Konoha, and offered to lead search parties of their own, and it took all of Sakura and Hiashi's considerable skills to convince them that such measures would only scare Naruto away, instead of turning himself in for the proper legal procedures – but her main concern was Sasuke's absence.

Her husband had been officially summoned, and his delay had begun to be noticed amongst the ninja population. If on one hand that made it extremely hard for him to escape her clutches for long, on the other his disregard of her explicit orders made Sakura lose face amongst her subordinates.

And Sakura had no interest in being mocked as a weak leader.

"Fine. We'll give him two more days. If he is not here by then, I will send a search party after him. _We_ cannot, of course, give a Konoha ninja more leeway in obeying a direct order, lest _we_ be seen as weak by our own personnel. I hope you understand," she said dryly, and the old crone nodded her assent.

"Of course, Hachidaime."

At that moment, the door knocked, and one of her ANBU stepped in. "Morino Ibiki is here to see you, Hokage-sama."

She motioned for him to let the man in.

Ibiki had grown old doing what he knew best, and it showed on his face. The scarred man entered and bowed to the two women.

"Report," Sakura commanded.

"The detained have no information to give except that Yamanaka Ino was summoned by the Nanadaime shortly before the alarm sounded at the Hyuuga compound. They have no knowledge of the whereabouts of him or his party."

"Can you be absolutely sure?" Koharu asked.

Ibiki gave her a slow, dangerous smirk. "Yes, we can be absolutely sure."

Sakura sighed. "Fine. As much as I suspect them, let them go back to their families, under surveillance. If Ino is with Naruto of her own will, she'll find a way to contact him."

"How can you be so sure?" the old crone asked her.

She smiled. "Oh, Ino is as protective of her husband as I am mine. She'll want to be sure he's not fooling around."

* * *

Two hours later, Sai and Shizune were separately freed.

Sai entered the Yamanaka's small cluster of houses behind their flower shop by a side entrance, and fell into the arms of Ino's mother.

"Oh gods, what did they do to you?" she asked, taking notice of the bruises in the trembling man's face.

"I'm fine. Nothing worse than Root," he whispered.

She helped him inside her kitchen, and they quietly formed a set of three seals together.

'Now that they got their show, sit down and tell me what you've gathered,' Inoshishi* asked him, using the clan's secret telepathic bond, imprinted on Sai during his marriage to Ino.

As his mother-in-law had said once her daughter and him informed her of the genjutsu, once he was accepted into the clan, he would be considered a Yamanaka for life, no matter if the marriage continued or not, and Sai had pledged his allegiance to the clan with all his heart.

'They're desperate to get their hands on Naruto, and by the way they badgered me about anything Ino might have done to my mind, they know he knew about the jutsu and that Ino was investigating about it. It took all my training, both in Root and in the family, to block Morino's advances. But I was able to glimpse that he was specifically ordered to drill me, while Shizune was interrogated by one of his assistants. Ino did well in leaving and taking Inojin, Mama.'

The matriarch nodded, scowling. 'Good boy, Sai. Now they'll undoubtedly keep strict surveillance on us, hoping that Ino behaves recklessly and tries to contact you.'

Sai tilted his head. 'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?' he thought at her, and grinned evilly.

She grinned back. 'Inoichi would've been so proud of you, boy. Let's give them a run for their money, yes.'

* * *

The Kazekage and his family sat in silence as the servants served their lunch.

After the help had been granted they left, closing the door behind them, Kankurou gave a small nod, and Gaara raised a sand barrier around the table.

"I talked to the Hachidaime, they refused our help," Gaara said. "Seems Shikamaru was right."

"You think they'll be coming to seek our help here?" Kankurou asked quietly.

"With Shikamaru's head screwed back on correctly I think that wouldn't happen," Temari answered.

"Excuse-me," Shikadai asked. "I think you guys are worrying about the wrong thing."

"Explain," Gaara commanded his nephew.

"You know, I've noticed that nobody has been too worried about who succeeded the Nanadaime around here. Even in the news there hasn't been any major financial upheaval or commentary, it seems kinda weird this whole "business as usual" stance when such an important pillar of unity for the Shinobi Alliance has been removed, doesn't it?" the boy drawled. "It's more like when royalty gets caught doing something stupid than what I'd expect from when the legendary all powerful Hokage screws up that bad. Especially considering how quick they instituted Haruno-san as his successor, I mean, no offense mom, but if uncle Gaara had died or left Suna I'd expect uncle Kankurou to be taking his place, not someone who's been a humble housewife for so long."

"None taken. And yes, you're right. I was also wondering the same… of course Haruno is one of the Sannin, but yes, there are definitely more senior candidates than her."

Gaara nodded in the dark. "I think it'd be appropriate for us to keep our eyes open and our ears sharp for a while, to better assess this situation. For now, be careful. I have upped the security around both of you in response to Shikamaru's absence, but even so I'd ask you not to leave my sight, at least until my spies in Konoha can give me a detailed report."

With that, he retracted the sand, and the family went back to their meal.

* * *

"We can't just stay here until hell freezes over. One of us has to go see what's going on in Konoha," Shikamaru warned the others after lunch.

"Oh, trust me, I'm desperate to get out of this hole, but how in hell are we going to do that? Everyone in the five elemental countries would recognize us, we're not exactly common people," Ino said, frowning.

"How about henge? Civilians wouldn't be able to catch us in a well-made one, and even most ninja nowadays are hardly able to spot the chakra variations," Tsunade offered, and gave Naruto a derisive side-look.

"What, is it my fault now that ninja are badly instructed?" the blond growled.

"Yes," the entire table with the exception of Shikamaru, who was conscious of his own blame in the subject, answered.

"Uh, it was your first decree as Hokage…" he reminded Naruto, who hid his face behind his hands in shame.

"I swear, when I find out who cast that damn jutsu and why they cast it on us there is going to be hell to pay," he grumbled.

"Um, I can go," Suigetsu said, after a long silence while considering his options.

First thing, he had to inform Sasuke of his whereabouts and of what happened. And pray the Uchiha wouldn't blow up in furious flames when he knew his supposedly dead child was not only very much alive but was also quite possibly the most dangerous being in the face of the planet at the moment. And not only knew his father had tried to kill it when it had been born, but he was probably sure Sasuke'd do it again, not that Suigetsu could reprimand him for that.

Also, considering what he knew of the famous Uchiha temper and the little he had seen of the Juubi in physical form, Suigetsu doubted Menma was just going to forgive Sasuke as if nothing had happened. No bond between the strange child and Naruto could scream louder than Uchiha righteous rage. That was another reason to if possible get as far away from the boy as possible. He didn't want no legendary juggernaut beast hot on his trail after becoming another insane Uchiha kinslayer, thank you very much.

At that moment, Menma and Inojin both subtly poked Bolt's sides, and the Uzumaki boy nodded almost imperceptibly.

While they bathed they had talked about their options on their own, knowing instinctively that the adults would most probably either shoo them away from their conversation or disregard their opinions.

"_They're gonna want to send somebody up there to see what the situation looks like back home," Inojin had said._

"_Yeah. Don't count on them asking on our opinion tho, Naruto didn't give Kurama room to argue with him even back when he and me weren't the same, let alone now that I'm "just a little kid", and considering Bolt's record…" Menma said, shaking his head._

"_Ok, lemme see. We have the Scumbag, Shikamaru, Ino and Tsunade, and that Suigetsu guy that was spying for your dad as adults," Bolt counted on his fingers. "Of those, maybe Ino-san could go, but I doubt the guys are gonna let her because she's a girl," he said, rolling his eyes in derision. "Tsunade-sama is too damn old and there ain't no way she'd drop that rejuvenating henge of hers; Shika and the Scumbag are way too easy to recognize even under a henge cause ANBU are all trained to recognize their chakra a mile away. So that leaves the spy."_

"_Who'll just run away to tell Uchiha what's going on and leave us with no information," Menma said._

"_You sure? Didn't seem as such a bad guy, that Suigetsu," Inojin mused, but the blind boy nodded._

"_He ain't gonna want to be near me or my dad. He knows the first thing that'll happen once he learns that I'm alive is kill me, especially now that I'm the Juubi," Menma answered, and gave them a grim smirk. "And I'd like to see his arrogant ass try."_

After careful deliberation, the boys had decided on a course of action.

"Suigetsu is the best choice to go, nobody knows him," Bolt agreed.

"He's a spy, boy. The first thing he'll do is hide under Uchiha Sasuke's cloak and forget he ever saw us," Shikamaru pointed out.

"I know," Bolt replied. "That's why I'm going with him."

Naruto's eyes bulged. "What? Are you crazy? No way am I letting you go near your grandfather!" he protested.

"I'm used to moving around in the city undetected and I can disguise myself perfectly without using henge. I also can see under any type of disguise and I _know_ I can beat the shit out of Fishy here if he tries to give me the slip. Who'd you rather go then? Ino-san? Inojin? The one-eyed freak? You know if either you, Shikamaru or the Godaime go people will smell your important asses the moment you slip out of here. And you can't turn off Menma's cover by yourself because it's not a jutsu. So what are you gonna do?"

"There's gotta be another way, Bolt. What if you get another panic attack? What if Hiashi finds you?"

The Uzumaki boy scowled. "There isn't. And we won't be going anywhere near the old village. Look, I got you out of Hiashi's clutches, didn't I? Can't you give me some credit and trust me for once? I am afraid, yeah, but wasn't you who told me I have to learn to endure if I wanna be a ninja? Let me do this."

Naruto stood and pulled Bolt out of the room with him.

"Bolt, please. Please. Please. You're all I have. I just got to start knowing you with my mind unclouded. _Please_. Don't do this," he asked, kneeling in front of his son after closing the door to their room.

Bolt stretched a hand and wiped a tear off his face, noting how aged he looked. "Look… dad," he said, the title sounding strange on his voice, "You're all I have too. And I am scared. But that Suigetsu guy is our only safe way to get to know if and for how long we're safe, and Shikamaru-san is right, he will disappear if he goes out on his own. He's got nothing attaching him to us. Nothing forcing him to do the job, get some supplies and come back without leading the ANBU to us. Me and the boys talked about this. Inojin can't go because he doesn't have a lot of stealth training and he doesn't know how to get around the city, and Menma can't go not only because all someone needs is to pull off that headband from his face to kill him on the spot or turn him in to the government for being a freak, but because if he dies, dad…" Bolt closed his eyes. "If he dies or gets caught, nobody will care. We'll all cry, but we won't go after Fish-face for him. So it has to be me. If I go, he'll know better than to run away or leave me unprotected somewhere. So let me do this," the boy finished with a serious voice.

Naruto didn't have the heart to even try refuting his son's arguments, because they were true. He felt like an asshole for it, but he had to agree with Bolt. And, though he was scared shitless of letting him out of his sight, he felt a humble sort of pride that his son had turned out to be such a thoughtful and mature boy.

So he nodded, still crying, and hugged his son as if he had already lost him.

* * *

**A/N**

*I gave Ino's mother the name Inoshishi since Ino is the shortened version of that word, which means boar in Japanese. Her real name doesn't show up anywhere, though.

Oh and no, I didn't make Killer B "turn jamaican", it's just his horrible rhyming.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N**

So due to Easter and me having had spent it basically drowning in chocolate this chapter has come out "late" (my beta can only do her wonderful job on weekends), but I hope you guys like it.

And please don't shoot me. But do review :D

* * *

*Thump*

"Hey," Bolt greeted in a low voice, watching the ball hit the wall.

"Hey," Menma answered, catching the ball flawlessly and throwing it again.

*Thump*

"We're leaving."

*Thump*

"I know," Menma replied. "Don't worry, me and Inojin will keep things quiet while you're away."

*Thump*

Bolt came closer to him, and opened his mouth, but closed it again as he saw the firm set of the blind boy's lips and the firm resignation coating the white-hot emotional pain he could see flaring through the Juubi's chakra-made-flesh body, the actual physical tissues only a faint, transparent suggestion shaping the psychedelic swirls of nature energy being pulled in, twirling, breaking in a million different colors as it was transmuted into chakra, and pulsing out through his feet into the earth.

*Thump*

Bolt could see Menma had been steadily gaining more precise control over the exchange, and the other ninja had begun becoming numb to the steady pulsing of chakra.

Of course, it helped that they couldn't actually see him as Bolt did. Not that Bolt attempted to think he understood the true nature of it. All he knew is that he could recognize Menma's emotions without thinking about it or having to research what he was seeing, as with regular people.

*Thump*

The Uzumaki heir sighed. "Thanks," he mumbled, unsure of what else to say. What could he, really? Menma was entirely aware of how the adults perceived him. And for him, both as a newborn mind and the collective of nine ancient others, being set apart was the norm, not something new. Loneliness was an intrinsic part of his soul, and its pain was, as Menma had calmly told Bolt when the blond questioned him, just another aspect of himself.

It hadn't stopped Bolt from hurting in sympathy when he saw the ugly little Uchiha's cold, analytic assessment of his situation ring true in Naruto's eyes. Or from feeling a horrible, disgusting relief that he wasn't as cursed by fate as the other boy was.

"Bye," he whispered, and left.

*Thump… thump… thump, thump, thump, thump*

* * *

As much as Karin and Juugo had always made fun of him, Suigetsu wasn't a complete idiot. Yes, he was a bit self-centered, had never had much respect for authority, admittedly enjoyed riling up people, but he had always been a reliable teammate, a good, resourceful spy, a loyal friend and an observant person.

So he didn't miss the suspicious twitch on Bolt's eye as the boy watched Naruto, while the Nanadaime asked him to deliver a personal message for Sasuke.

Or the hopeful, almost hungry look in the man's eyes as he handed the small sealed envelope to him.

The Uzumaki heir was now running silently beside him, disguised as Isao, the boy wrestler that fought at the Pit for money.

While exploring Orochimaru's lair the three boys had found a chest with children's clothing, left over from previous experiments, and so Menma had quickly returned Bolt's Isao outfit. The young Uchiha now sported a red silk sleeveless tunic with orange flames, black linen slacks and a small white sash in lieu of a blindfold, all chosen for practicality and ease to wear since the boy was blind.

Suigetsu had thought it the height of irony to see Sasuke's forsaken son sporting the Uchiha colors mixed with Naruto's orange, but had kept it to himself, as much out of fear of the boy than out of discretion.

Though Menma mostly behaved like a little kid, Suigetsu could see the small little different ways in which he interacted with the different people around him. The deep loyalty and love he'd show Naruto and Tsunade, the affection with which he treated Ino and Shikamaru, the way he truly seemed to treasure Inojin and Bolt as his equals.

And the polite, calculating stance he had with him. He wouldn't avoid Suigetsu, but would often become quieter around him, his head tilted to the side like a predator subtly studying his prey with unknown senses. It unnerved Suigetsu to no end, and even more because Inojin and Bolt seemed to be in on it, and though Bolt didn't seem that protective of the blind boy, Inojin had become as if attached at the hip to the ugly little Uchiha, and Suigetsu would feel the Yamanaka's warning glare over him every time he dared try to look more closely at the one-eyed blind child that wasn't really a child at all.

Amongst the adults, only Tsunade really took the time to observe Menma, Suigetsu noticed. The other three mostly paid attention to each other, or Bolt, and Suigetsu could bet not only that happened because the Juubi boy wanted things to be that way, but that Tsunade was in on the reason she and him were the only two adults allowed to be really aware of the kid.

So it was with much relief that Suigetsu left the hideout to search for information and leave information of his own for Sasuke. They'd take half a day to go around a wide enough perimeter to enter the village through its periphery, where the poorer neighborhoods were located, running in the cold November rain, but that discomfort was a fleeting one compared with the oppressive, stifling air inside the lair.

He didn't dare just liquefy and use the rain to move faster, though, even if Bolt was probably able to distinguish him from water. Letting the Uzumaki boy out of his sight wasn't a good idea, the Nanadaime would have his hide and Ayame would definitely use him as base for ramen broth if she knew he had let a kid wander alone.

They got to the outskirts of Konoha City by three o'clock in the afternoon.

"We'll be stopping at a friend's to leave the messages, after that we can go get supplies," Suigetsu said as they walked nonchalantly through the mostly empty rainy street, and in another twenty minutes they made it to Ichiraku's ramen stall near the Pit.

Ayame gave him a professional smile that hid the warning glint in her eye, and he raised his hand in a peace offering.

"Hi Ayame-san, uh, this is my friend Isao," he said, waving at Bolt.

"Hi," she greeted Bolt with the same forced smile. "I think Dad has your parcel, he's up at the apartment, how about you two go there and have some tea with the old man? I'm sure he would appreciate the company," she told Suigetsu. "We kept it up there since you were out doing errands."

Suigetsu nodded quietly. So they were already waiting for him to show up with news of his own, and Sasuke was waiting for him at old man Teuchi's. He took a deep breath and gave Ayame a toothy smile. "Sure, we'll be right up. Thanks Ayame-chan!"

The pair crossed the street and entered a nearby side alley, where they climbed a set of rickety stairs to the third floor of a rundown building.

"Please let me do the talking," Suigetsu asked in a low voice, before knocking the sequence that would identify him at the door.

Bolt remained quiet, but began internally modulating his chakra flow to be ready in case of being attacked.

Old man Teuchi opened the door and smiled at the albino spy-nin, but it fell a bit as soon as he saw the boy next to him.

"Hi! Come in, come in, friends!" the stall owner greeted, and shut the door after them, beginning to make a series of seals with his hands to raise a barrier at the door.

He turned around and called in. "You can come out now, it's Suigetsu."

Bolt saw Suigetsu get even paler than usual when a large ginger haired man entered from a side hallway, and moved to a chair between two windows, from where he could keep an eye in the entire small living room.

"Oh shit Juugo, don't tell me," the spy whispered, tears forming in his eyes.

The redhead raised his hand. "It's all right. I left Salad taking care of him, he wanted to come but it wasn't safe, so I did," he said, giving Bolt a side look. "Who's he?"

Suigetsu collapsed on a chair. "Stubborn idiot gonna be the death of us," he mumbled, running his hands through his head.

"I'm Bolt. I take it you're another of Uchiha's men," the boy said quietly. "Suigetsu got me out of the Hyuuga compound after my mom and sister were killed, and helped getting the others out to a safe place. We came to get information and supplies, and to contact your boss."

"Our friend," Juugo said. "Not our boss, our friend. I too am here for information and supplies, the Hachidaime Hokage has put out an order to detain him as well, for 'questioning'."

"Hiashi?" Bolt said, unfazed, and Juugo shook his head. "Haruno Sakura."

That did shake the boy, who scowled. "So the son of a bitch wasn't man enough to take the mantle and put it on my mother's killer instead. All the more reason for me to see Uchiha."

Juugo's eyes widened, and he turned to Suigetsu.

"He saw the murders. Sakura came henged as the Nanadaime and killed Hinata, something pertaining to a jutsu that was cast on him shortly before he and the Hyuuga princess got married. Then Hyuuga Hiashi came into the room and killed the little girl as a proof of trust or something. Seems Uzumaki was freed from the jutsu and that made it convenient for Hyuuga to make a deal with Hinata's murderer, since he's the yakuza's main contact in Konoha," the albino explained. "I didn't see it but I believe him, he's proved he was able to see under the henge, and Uzumaki was, uh… occupied with something else."

"Uchiha's son," Bolt said, looking straight at Juugo to gauge his reaction, and nodding when the redhead turned sharply at him. "He's alive, and the Scumbag took him in so the Uchihas wouldn't try to kill him again."

"Sasuke wouldn't"

"He did. But Menma is alive, and if what he told me is true, you'll want to take me to Uchiha if you want him to live as well."

* * *

Sakura followed Hiashi into the Council's private quarters in trepidation.

The Hyuuga leader had called her into an important meeting with a "representative of Amegakure's government", which obviously meant someone important to the Council's elusive associates, since basically all of Konoha's technological advancements had been imported from Ame, so she expected to meet someone important.

Who she didn't expect to meet was the man standing next to the Yakuza boss.

"Hachidaime, I'd like you to meet our most esteemed associate, the Oyabun Rokushou Kohaku," Hiashi introduced, and both leaders bowed to each other.

"I believe you already know my second in command," Rokushou drawled with a smirk, motioning to the tall, gray-haired man beside him.

"It's nice to see you again, Kakashi. You look better without that mask," Sakura greeted with a calculated smile, and he bowed, before all took their seats.

"I believe, Hiashi-sama, that you have informed the Hachidaime of our partnership?" the Yakuza boss asked, and Hiashi nodded. "Very well. With the formal addition of Konoha's Kage to our sphere of relations the only military force in the Union which is not under Yakuza control is Sunagakure, and that is a matter of convenient timing for our representatives in the Sand Council and their leader, Baki, who is extremely close to the Sand Siblings. Once that is done, our master plan shall be put in motion, bringing even more peace and prosperity to our allies."

"No one informed me of a master plan," Sakura said dryly, looking warily at Kakashi's new, short-clipped hairstyle and smart black modern business suit.

Rokushou smiled and motioned for Kakashi.

"The plan, my most esteemed Hokage, is to unite all the Five Elemental countries under one ruler, all their military forces under one Gokage, and then to further unite the entire continent under one Empire," Kakashi began explaining, and Sakura's eyes widened. "You see, Sakura-sama, after the Fourth Shinobi War it became clear that the development of ninja abilities by the clans only served as a divisive force between the different powers and that only led to violence; however, there was no peaceful alternative to the village system that was adequate to provide peace without exposing the ninja caste to… inadequate disadvantages for such a noble caste."

"The Yakuza was formed as a means to control society for the benefit of ninja without the risk of unnecessary bloodshed and financial losses," the oyabun continued from where Kakashi left off. "We believe that the reason for all the wars was the shift of political and financial power from the godly chosen caste of ninja to the lowly daimyo and civilians in the first place, and that it is only by the stronger caste retaking its rightful place at the head of the power structure that true peace can be sustained. As the esteemed Hachidaime Hokage has no doubt seen over the last several years since my second in command was instated as Rokudaime, our philosophy is soundly backed by reality."

Sakura had to agree to that. Ninja clans and villages had indeed flourished under the Union's rule. And Kakashi's presence served as proof of the Yakuza's influence since the very beginning.

"What do you want from me?" she asked.

"I like a woman that can go straight to the point," Rokushou said with a smile. "What we want is only the assurance that Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and all people who are located with them are either executed or physically neutralized to the point they cannot interfere with our plans. I am aware of your attachment to your beloved husband," the man said, raising a hand as Sakura opened her mouth, "and thus I am willing to allow him to remain alive as long as he is completely pacified by loss of eyes, vocal chords and physical coordination. Unfortunately, due to the extreme danger he poses otherwise, those terms are non-negotiable."

Sakura swallowed her protests as she saw the deadly intent in the man's eyes.

What he offered was nothing short of utter defeat and humiliation for Sasuke-kun. No doubt her husband would feel a life like that was worse than death itself… but on the other hand, he would be finally free from any excuse to not surrender to her unconditional, eternal love as his only source of happiness. And Sakura knew her love alone was enough to make Sasuke-kun happy.

"I agree to those terms. However, I will need assistance in their capture. And I demand my husband to be delivered to me unharmed. I myself will provide the medical services necessary for his pacification," she said.

The oyabun smiled and bowed courteously in agreement.

* * *

The next morning began with Bolt's eyes scanning through the newspaper while the two former Taka members ate breakfast to the sound of the morning newscast.

"This just in, we have an urgent announcement from the Hachidaime Hokage, Haruno Sakura," the news anchor said, and the three males looked in unison at the TV set.

The Hachidaime's stern face appeared in the press room.

"It is my sad duty to inform the people of the Fire Country and the Union that the former war hero Uchiha Sasuke has not complied with the order he was given to present himself at Konohagakure, and as such he is now considered a missing-nin. His most recent picture and chakra signature readings have been distributed to all countries of the Union and hunter-nin teams have been sent for his capture, with orders to proceed with extreme prejudice," she announced, and gave a sad sigh. "Sasuke-kun, please think of our daughter's safety and come back to Konoha, your presence here is necessary for your own safety. I urge you to return immediately, and surrender quietly in case you encounter any of the capture teams. Thank you all," she said in a shaken voice, and left hurriedly.

The reporter turned to the camera and began summarizing the events since Sakura's ascent to power, emphasizing on the Uchiha's untrustworthy behavior before the war and his refusal to stay in the village afterwards, and taking great pains to make Salad seem like his victim.

"We should go now, before moving around without Menma's help becomes impossible," Bolt said, and went to pack his few belongings for the trip without looking at the two men, who hurriedly finished their food and began to prepare for the trip.

They picked up as many documents as they could fit into sealing scrolls without the chakra traces calling attention to them by the occasional patrols they knew they'd meet in the roads coming to and from Konoha City, sealed all the supplies they had bought the previous day as well and left the city by bus, their humble, simple civilian-style clothing working well to disguise them, for long gone were the days where ninja dressed mutely around civilians. Nowadays, they either all wore uniforms or their clan symbols on expensive clothing whenever leaving the ninja-only districts.

Juugo had met many different children in his life, but he could bet his right arm Bolt was the most two-faced, talented child actor he had ever had the chance to see performing.

In less than thirty minutes the boy had ingratiated himself with all the other passengers due to his childish antics.

"Uncle, are we theeeere yeeeet?" the boy drawled in an extremely bored voice, before rising from his seat and going over to play with a small child up the aisle after Suigetsu's reply.

It was pure genius in action. "Isao's" antics and infectious smile had made three different families cover for his presence in the bus, aiding Suigetsu and Juugo's cover in all the roadblocks they passed, since children riding alone or without their mothers were considered suspicious due to the fact Uchiha Sasuke had been last seen traveling alone with his daughter, who was still young enough to pass as a boy.

And thus the three travelers were able to swindle and con their way through the three-day trek to Shin Farm without being detected.

They arrived at the main house before sunrise, exhausted and dirty from the last leg of the journey, done on foot and leaving fake tracks to different directions to fool any possible hunter-nin teams.

Juugo and Suigetsu dropped their packs on the entrance near their shoes, and Juugo dragged his feet towards the small kitchenette, grumbling about making fresh tea while the albino man lit a few lamps in the living/dining room.

"Juugo? Okaeri," a sleepy voice made itself heard, and Bolt raised his head sharply, to see Salad entering the living room from a side hallway and freezing where she stood as their eyes met.

The redhead came quickly from the kitchen and picked her up. "Tadaima, Salad. This is Suigetsu, who is an old friend of me and your dad's, and that,"

"I know who that is," Salad replied. "What are you doing here, Bolt? The Nanadaime isn't here and your grandpa is looking for you. I'm sorry for Himawari and your mom, but we don't want any trouble, please go away before you cause problems for Papa."

Bolt wasn't paying attention to her, instead looking to a corner of the room with an intense gaze.

"Salad honey, how about we wake your Papa and let him decide what to do?" Juugo asked her.

"If you're talking about Uchiha, he's awake and outside heaving his rotten guts out, so don't bother," Bolt said conversationally, moving his gaze over to them. "I don't know much medical jutsu but I think I can help keep him alive if we hurry back, but it'd be a close call, his body looks like it's been hanging by a thread for a while already."

Salad jumped from Juugo's lap and turned on the Uzumaki boy. "Why are you saying that? My Papa is sick but he's got medicine, he said it was stomach problems and he'd be fine!"

At that moment, the front door opened and the subject of their discussion walked in with his bloodline limit activated, zeroing his eyes on Bolt.

"Juugo, explain," he demanded, unsheathing his sword.

"Why don't _you_ explain to your dearest daughter why you're lying to her about the fact that you're _dying_, or why you tried to kill her newborn _brother_?" Bolt said derisively, making no move to face him and watching Salad's face instead.

Salad paled, speechless.

"That's right, Uchiha, your _wonderful_ Papa here tried to kill your little brother as soon as he saw the kid's face, because he was born with worse problems in his eyes than you. The only reason the kid is still alive was that the Scumbag took pity on him and made it seem that he died. Oh, and your _dearest_ Mama? She killed my mom, watched as my grandpa killed my sister with his bare hands and is currently set on getting her dirty paws on both my Scumbag father and yours, who by the way _is rotting from the inside out as we speak _and doesn't give a shit about what happens to you after he's dead. **So how about you quit the cute little girl act and pretend you're a damn ninja for once, before either of yours or my irresponsible parent gets the three of us kids who are left **_**killed**_**?**" Bolt spit out, watching as the last ringing words sunk into the Uchiha girl's brain.

Salad's world, which had lately been precariously balancing over a ledge, fell and broke into a million small pieces after Bolt's words and the startled, guilty look on Juugo and Suigetsu's faces, and the enraged scowl on Sasuke's.

Every wall of emotional defense she had constructed around her psyche crumbled as her carefully built innocence was shattered and scattered to the four winds by the one child who she had never seen pretend to be anything but his own ugly, dark, hateful self around anyone.

"Salad?" she heard distantly, and had a distorted, blurred vision of Juugo's worried face coming close to her. She began backpedaling into the hallway, and as the kind man extended his hand to her she turned around and ran into the library, slamming the door on his face and locking it.

"Salad open up!" Juugo called with a worried voice, knocking on the door, while in the living room Bolt calmly turned towards Sasuke and gave the Uchiha a cold, despising look.

In the locked library Salad looked around in desperation, unable to think of anything but to run as fast and as far as she could to escape, escape her father, her mother, her own childishness behind which she hid her feelings of uselessness as an Uchiha and a ninja. Her eyes fell on a couple of kunai over her father's desk, and she grabbed them, her emotional turmoil leaving her usual anxiety towards the possibility of making a mistake aside; she threw them with both hands, breaking the windowpane, jumped out of the window, unmindful of the scratches and cuts the glass shards left on her shoulders, legs and feet, and ran, ran under the first light of dawn as if demons were coming for her soul.

At the sound of the window breaking, Bolt boldly pushed past Sasuke's looming frame and left after Salad, without bothering to stop to pull on his sandals.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N**:

Hey everybody! What's up?

I swear I didn't think it was possible to be crueler to SS than I was in this fic but Kishimoto did the impossible, have y'all read the Naruto Gaiden chapter? Holy crap, ok, now I'm really scared cause I killed Hinata and Himawari, wtf is Kishimoto gonna do, make Hinata cuckold Naruto and give the kid brain damage? Damn. And Naruto doesn't even care that Sasuke never saw his own kid? Holy ramen, he's been **zombified**.

Well, I hope this chapter makes you all a little happier about little Salad, at least in this fic she's not treated that horribly.

* * *

Salad stopped after reaching the orchard, and dropped down under a cherry tree, curling into a ball while she tried to muffle her crying.

"Go away!" she screamed as Bolt came near her.

"Your brother needs you," he replied, and sat in front of her. "Your mother is a crazy murderer and your dad is as bad as mine, but Menma has nothing to do with them and even though the Scumbag saved him, because the Scumbag is _my_ birth dad, if something happens to me and Menma he'll fucking save _me_ and let Menma die. And your dad is probably going to try to kill him anyways. He's got no one but you. And to be really honest, you have no one but him, so stop crying, you haven't lost anything."

Salad sat up, shaking. "What do you care if a baby lives or dies? I never saw you care about anyone! All I ever saw you do was lie! You pretended to be bad at school but you can do all those fancy jutsu, you were just fooling everyone!" she screamed.

Bolt raised his eyebrows. "So that's why you kept stalking me, then?"

"Yeah," she said, sniffling and cleaning her nose on her sleeve. "I saw you by accident once, and I was… I was jealous," she explained. "I can't do any of the stuff you do, I'm totally useless, and you know everyone makes fun of me having bad eyes and being only half-Uchiha," she sighed. "And then there was you, doing all this really badass jutsu and using a stupid rope to hang on Hokage Mountain," she laughed bitterly. "I was so _angry_! You had everything I ever wanted, but you hid it from everyone! Why?"

"The only reason I can do all that and know so much about jutsu is because I have a doujutsu just like my mom and your dad," Bolt said quietly, and Salad's eyes widened. "But mine is neither one nor the other, and I hate it, because ever since I saw my mom get beat up by Hiashi I see everything. Everything. I see the insides of people, and animals, and plants. I see through everything, all the layers that make up the things in the world. Remember that day Shino-sensei took us to visit a farm?"

Salad nodded.

"The animals were sick with parasites. The kids in the farm, those poor little kids, had parasites too. Worms and stuff like that. I could see the things eating them inside, Salad. Just like I can see your dad is rotting up with disease. I can also see chakra, the pathways, the way that the seals they teach us to make jutsu work as symbols that people use to represent the way they're modulating the chakra inside their bodies, so I can copy any jutsu without having to even see the seals. I can also see nature energy, the way it comes in and out of everything. And I can't turn it off, even when I close my eyes. When I sleep, all my dreams are nightmares, because I remember everything, _everything_ I see," he blurted out, and Salad gave him a horrified, and pitiful, look.

"I saw when your mom killed mine. She stuck a kunai into her heart, and held her while she died. It took a long time, and I saw everything, from how her heart was pierced to when her brain died from lack of blood. And then Hiashi came, and talked to your mom, and killed Himawari. That didn't take so long because he broke her neck, she died quicker. I'll never forget what I saw, either."

"You asked me why I cared about your brother. After the Scumbag took him in, his body started to suck out Menma's chakra. He was just a little ugly one-eyed baby, so Kurama and the tailed beasts took pity on him, and tried to save his life. In the end, just trying to give him chakra and make him grow faster so he could produce more on his own than the Scumbag was sucking out of him wasn't enough, so they gave their lives to merge with him. I was there when it happened," he continued, and Salad gaped at him. He raised a hand to stop her from interrupting.

"Their chakra bodies mixed with his and now he's… human-like, but almost all that chakra is serving as his body because he doesn't have much flesh and bone yet. He looks like he's our age now, and the beasts merged with his mind too, so he can think and talk and do all that stuff we do, his brain isn't like a baby's. And he knows what happened when he was born, and after that, because he has the beasts' memories. But now he's blind, his eye changed and he can't see anymore. He knows that he's all alone, too, except for the Scumbag… but _even so_ he made him take care of me," he continued, and gave Salad a wondering look. "He didn't tell me, but the Scumbag left his side, that he had been on since he was born, to watch and take care of me alone. And when I asked Menma why he didn't care that my dad wasn't giving him any attention, he just said that it was ok, because I was suffering and being in pain sucks." He blinked at her. "And it was the first time I _ever _saw anyone help someone else without wanting anything in return."

"But your dad…" she started, after watching him speechless for a long while.

Bolt laughed bitterly. "My dad never did anything that wouldn't benefit him personally, Salad. Everything he ever did was to gain something: recognition, attention, the Hokage title. Even when he takes care of me, he does it so I'll repay him the favor in the future," he said, drawing on the ground with a kunai. "My mom was the same, even when she took the beating from Hiashi instead of me. She did it so people wouldn't see me all bruised up, so she wouldn't have to explain why the Hokage's son had been beat up. It was enough shame for her that she had been removed from the Hyuuga clan, you know? So she took it, knowing that if the bruises were on her my dad wouldn't even see them, by then he was already out all the time."

Salad looked down and fidgeted with the hem of her skirt. "I'm sorry for you," she said. "At least Ayame-chan, Teuchi-san and Juugo treated me well without asking for anything back, or even just in front of _him_," she added, deep bitterness lacing the last word. "But I'm just a girl, what can I actually do to protect my brother? I'm not even a ninja," she asked warily.

Bolt smiled at her. "Menma, Inojin and me have begun to put a plan together, a plan to expose the real killers and make things right again. But we need all the help we can get, especially from people who can move about in the city without being detected. That's where you come in, because you never learned how to develop your chakra, you can pass for a civilian, and since you're just a little girl, nobody will pay attention to you. You're the _perfect_ spy, even better than Suigetsu, 'cause when he liquefies his chakra flares up and our parents' ninja generation can detect him. _You_, on the other hand, are invisible to _any_ ninja."

Salad's eyes bulged out. "I… I can be useful? _Me_? _Really_?" she asked eagerly, and the young Uzumaki nodded.

"Take me to my… my little brother... oh gods… _**I have an otouto**_! _**I'm an Ane**_!" She squealed the last, as if – and probably – realizing that for the first time.

Bolt rolled his eyes and stood up, stretching his hand to her. "Just promise you won't try to play house with him or any of that dumb girl stuff before we get out of this mess," he mumbled, and she giggled in wonderment.

Salad followed Bolt back, unmindful of her cuts and bruises, feeling a fierce love for her brother begin to burn inside her heart; if nothing else, because he had given her what no one else had, a _purpose_.

* * *

Inside the house, Sasuke was sitting on one of the chairs with ankles crossed and hands fisted, listening to Suigetsu and Juugo's report with an increasingly dark mood.

"And you believed him," he said.

"Sasuke, have you seen the TV lately? Sakura _was_ actually made Hachidaime, that _does _sort of back up the Uzumakis' story. Besides, it explains how we only didn't find dirt on Naruto and Shikamaru amongst all the other people in Konoha's power structure: nobody had to actually draw them into the scheme since Naruto was sucking up Hyuuga's balls and Shikamaru was blindly doing what he was told because they were both brainwashed. It's ridiculous, I don't know why the hell would Sakura and Hinata team up to do something like that, but it does fit," Suigetsu replied, shrugging. "It's certainly less ridiculous than your kid having become the ten-tails, but I actually saw when that one happened. By the way, in retrospect I think when we get there you should consider apologizing, for, you know, trying to kill him at birth and all?"

"I'm not going," Sasuke growled, scowling. Suigetsu and Juugo looked startled at each other before staring at him.

"Excuse-me? What part of you have to go and reconnect with Naruto's chakra to survive did you miss?" Suigetsu nearly shouted indignantly.

"I don't care. Take the documents and go if you want, I've had enough."

Juugo took a deep, slow breath, and suddenly felt his mind crisp into freezing clarity. He nodded to himself, and in two long steps he was in front of the Uchiha, heaving him off the chair by the collar.

"You have had enough? No, Sasuke, _I_ have had enough," he said calmly, and let him go with one hand only to slap him across the face with the other strong enough to make the man fly across the room and land in a heap against the wall.

"Juugo!" Suigetsu called out, alarmed, but Juugo turned to him peacefully.

"Don't worry, as you can see I'm in perfect possession of all my faculties," he said, and the albino ninja went quiet, nodding. He walked to the stricken man and helped him sit up, unmindful of the scowl aimed at him.

"You know, Itachi is probably rolling in his grave out of shame right now," Juugo said conversationally, while pulling a handkerchief off a pocket and dabbing at the blood pouring from Sasuke's torn lower lip. "Of all the things I think he expected you to become, an irresponsible coward wasn't one."

He stood and looked down at the Uchiha. "It's my fault, I think. I've always depended so much on you to keep me grounded that I've excused all your faults as consequences of your suffering. I made you think you could get away with doing the same idiot mistake Naruto made during the last decade by supporting you without question. But I can't do that anymore, Sasuke, and do you know why?"

The brunet gave him a challenging glare, but only received a kind, sad look in return, and lowered his head.

"I can't let you do what you want anymore, because there is a little girl out there that _**you made**_. You **made** Salad. And there is a boy that _**you made**_ as well. It's bad enough that you wanted to kill him when he was born, and now you're just going to lie down and _die_ on those two children? Why? So Sakura can kill them? You _know _those children have no use for her, she only had them thinking they would keep you close to her, but you didn't even have that excuse! Fine, she tricked you to become pregnant this time, but you didn't force her to abort and you actually _did_ impregnate her on purpose the first time. _You created those two lives_, Sasuke, and so help me _you will take responsibility over them_, even if I have to drag your lousy Uchiha ass back to the hideout and **sew** you and Uzumaki Naruto together to make sure you stay alive and do it."

"He can stay and die for all I care, he's more than proved he doesn't care about family, just like my wretched mother," a small voice said quietly, and Juugo and Sasuke turned their heads to the door, where Salad was standing with Bolt sitting on the veranda behind her, putting on his sandals. "I'm going to pack and go to my otouto, he _needs_ me."

Juugo followed Salad with his eyes, until he heard the door to the library slam shut, and turned back to face Sasuke's still bowed head.

"I'm going to pack for both of us. Don't disappoint me further by not being in this room when I come back, Sasuke," he said softly, before leaving the room.

* * *

Meanwhile, Killer B greeted the morning passing through yet another miserable, run-down farming village.

It was the fourth he passed in his journey to the Fire Country, and he was appalled at the conditions the people lived in, much worse than before the Fourth War.

The people were fearful and sickly-looking, the water wasn't safe to drink, the food at the inns was little more than cornhusk bread and thin miso soup.

There were no ninja in sight anywhere, either.

When asked what happened, the people simply told him that the Raikage and the Daimyo demanded more taxes than they could pay. B was at first unbelieving, but as he arrived at the third village he actually saw Kumo ninja collecting the "taxes", along with one man wearing modern black clothing and taking note of the cargo, and realized that the villagers had been telling the truth, for the sheer amount of grain, eggs, produce and livestock taken away.

To think he himself had feasted unknowingly during all those "prosperous" years after the war, along with the other Kumogakure ninja, while the rest of the people in the country starved was enough to make him sick.

He entered the village's tiny inn, and ordered breakfast, moving to a small table in the corner.

As the thin waitress brought him his food (thin miso and a small serving of steamed barley), a black-clad man entered the inn.

"Collector-san, I am sorry, but we have only had one customer all week, and my daughter needs medicine, can we please pay our dues next time?" the innkeeper, a wizened old man, asked.

"Pass the money, old man, you know the penalty for tax evasion," the tax collector said in a bored voice.

"Please don't take my grandson, he is our only future," the old man asked, throwing himself on the ground and kowtowing.

B felt his insides tighten in anger, and rose.

"It's the money or the kid, gramps. Hurry up, I have other places to run today," the tax collector threatened.

"How much?" B asked, moving closer.

"And you are?" the tax collector asked, unimpressed.

"Doesn't matter who I am, how much do you want to leave these people alone?" he said, picking up his money pouch.

The tax collector checked his clipboard. "For this establishment, five hundred ryo per week," he said, giving B a derisive look.

B's eyes widened behind his dark glasses; it was more than a chuunin earned, no way an inn this small, in such a poor village, could raise that kind of money in total, let alone just for taxes.

He growled and counted the coins until he reached the required amount, and put them on the table beside the prostrated innkeeper. "Pick up your money and leave. Now," he warned.

The tax collector picked the money and bowed before leaving.

"Thank you… thank you, onii-sama," the innkeeper cried.

"It's only going to delay the inevitable, though," a male voice said, and B turned to see a teenage boy entering from the kitchen, shaking his head. "They've been doing this for the last six months, after they took everything else, now they take away the kids when the parents can't pay for the taxes. Nobody ever sees them again," he said quietly, looking down.

"Don't say that, Hiro! Next week will be better, we'll be able to pay him off and nobody will take you away!" the waitress said, and coughed wetly.

B picked up his money pouch again and took the innkeeper's hand in his. "This isn't much, but I don't really need it. Please use it to pay for medicine for your daughter, and to pay for the taxes until she recovers. Thank you for the meal," he said, before leaving without looking back.

It wasn't as if he wouldn't be fine living off the land, he was a ninja, after all. And there was a good few thousand ryo in the pouch, enough to last until he reached Konoha and came back to have a _very_ thorough talk with Darui.

* * *

"Mnmm… senbei… dango… yumyumyumyum…" Menma mumbled, and Tsunade suppressed a giggle before leaving their room.

The boy was sprawled over his futon, a leg having found its way up the side of her bed, obviously having sweet dreams. Or dreaming about sweets, at least.

She made her way to the refectory, where Ino and Inojin were already having breakfast.

"Morning shishou! Would you like some tea?" Ino greeted, pointing to the steaming teapot on the table.

"Yeah, thanks," Tsunade said, and sat with them.

"Godaime baa-chan, where's Menma?" Inojin asked, licking his fingers, and smiled wickedly when she told him the boy was still asleep, excusing himself and running off to the sleeping quarters.

Ino sighed, and Tsunade laughed. "Hey, it's good strength training at least."

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" Inojin shouted with every step, as he dragged Menma out of the bedroom by a foot, towards the refectory.

Shikamaru opened his room in time to see the boy pass by, snoring softly. He shook his head and closed the door again, hoping Shikadai was satisfied with being a single child or just wanted a little sister, because more than one boy around was definitely _too_ troublesome.

He opened the door again when it was knocked on, to see a sleepy-looking Naruto on the hallway.

"Morning," the Nanadaime greeted, coming in.

"Inojin wake you up?"

Naruto nodded, and yawned. "How can Menma stay asleep with all that racket is beyond my imagination," he said, sitting down on the bed. "I hope Bolt is all right, they should have reached the bastard already," he said, and rubbed his face.

"Yeah," Shikamaru agreed, and sat beside him. "Naruto… when they come back I want to find a way to contact Suna. Maybe Gaara can help us."

Naruto nodded. "If there's one Kage I can honestly say I still trust, it's him," he said. "But we need to find a way to do it without being detected."

Meanwhile, having reached the single occupied table, Inojin let Menma's foot drop from his shoulder and reached for a sweet mochi ball, which he industriously waved in front of the blind boy's nose until it started twitching.

"Wake uuuuup… eat sweet… wake uuuuup…" he chanted, pulling the sweet out of Menma's reach as the boy began to rise after it with his mouth open.

"No waking, just yumyums," the blind boy mumbled, sleepily trying to catch the sweet with his mouth while feeling his way around the bench.

"Come on, Menma, if you wake up you can eat as many as you want," Tsunade said, chortling and mussing up his wild blue-black bedhead. He pouted, and turned his head towards Ino. "Can I have sweet oatmeal with cream too, Ino-chan?"

Ino gave him an appraising look. "Hmmmm. Sure, but I'll throw in a couple of eggs and you have to eat it all before you can get more mochi."

Menma quickly agreed, and Inojin popped the sweet rice ball in his mouth, to which the ugly little Uchiha thanked him with a tight hug.

"Um, can we talk to you both in private after breakfast?" Inojin asked the two women, while Menma ate his porridge.

Ino and Tsunade shared a look. "Um, sure, baby, what do you want to talk about?" Ino asked.

Inojin gave Menma a cautious look, but the blind boy just motioned for him to continue with one hand and kept shoveling the food in his mouth as if afraid the bowl would run away if he stopped eating.

"Well… we, I mean, the three of us boys, we kinda came up with a plan to fix things so we can go back home," the little Yamanaka boy explained, "and we wanted your help."

"Why not tell everyone?" Tsunade asked, her hands steepled in front of her.

"You are the ones we trust the most," Inojin said, and Menma heaved a breath as he put his spoon down.

"And we think Papa won't be able to help us much, what with helping heal Uchiha Sasuke and all. Not to say that Shika-san won't even hear what we're saying 'cause we're kids," the blind boy continued. "You're both women, too, and Tsunade baa-chan was Godaime back when it took smarts to be Hokage, so we thought it'd be better to talk to you first, and then you talk to Shika-san. He'll listen to you."

Tsunade gave Ino a smile. "I like the way these boys think," she said, and Ino chuckled softly, nodding as she ruffled the boys' heads. "You guys are definitely smart, I'm proud of you. Ok, let's go up to the training room, we'll 'train' together."

They passed the two men on their way up and greeted them, excusing themselves saying that Inojin would show Menma his mind-transfer skills. After reaching the training room, they all sat down in a corner.

"Ok, spill it, brats," Tsunade ordered with a twinkle in her eye.

* * *

Both Uchihas, along with Juugo, Suigetsu and Bolt, left the farm after lunch. Both Sasuke and Salad had had their hair styled differently, and wore some of Bolt's ninja makeup to look less pale. Salad had again said she didn't care about Sasuke coming, but Juugo had stated he was taking the Uchiha patriarch willingly or not, and since Salad liked and respected Juugo, she accepted.

Besides, it had been fun seeing Pa- no, Sasuke – being forced to endure Bolt applying the makeup on him. Salad had admired herself in the mirror, realizing she very much liked her new look and promised herself to eat as many carrots as she could from now on – Ma- no, Sakura – had always forbidden her to eat those, saying they made skin darken and she had to be as perfectly Uchiha-white; and if there was something Salad didn't want to look like, after knowing how both her parents really were, was an Uchiha.

She shook her head, the two small pigtails Bolt had painstakingly affixed to her hair waving a little.

Sasuke was, of course, feeling entirely the opposite.

He felt first humiliated by Juugo's speech – yeah, Itachi would've done the same to him if not worse if he knew, so what? Itachi was dead and had abandoned him in Konoha in the first place, damn it – even though he grudgingly admitted that yes, the man had a point and since Sasuke was the reason there was now a damn half-human Juubi alive, then it _was_ Sasuke's obligation to deal with it. And yes, there was the girl, whose existence was also his fault, forcing him to delay his plans of a peaceful death.

Then he had to endure further humiliation at the deadlast's surprisingly intelligent – and completely disrespectful – spawn, who had even directed Juugo how to cut Sasuke's hair to better blend in with the peasant look he wanted to disguise the Uchiha with. He was now walking with a coarse wooden staff and rough spun clothing, and his hair had been tied up on a high ponytail, except for rugged bangs that framed his face and partially hid his features.

He scowled, remembering Salad looking at him and saying he now looked like Iruka's long-lost hobo brother.

* * *

**A/N**:

Ane – Japanese for elder sister

Darui is the Godaime Raikage of Kumogakure, as of chapter 700


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N**:

Ok, people, read up, from this chapter on the full title of this fic is going to be justified, so yes, there shall be shenanigans because there's no fairy tale without them :) So don't be too shocked with the change of humor, please, it is entirely intentional.

As always, I thank you guys SO much for your amazing reviews, they give me life, I swear. Keep them coming, I'll answer them to the best of my abilities :D

* * *

Even taking rest periods after every three hours, Sasuke and Salad were exhausted from walking without the aid of chakra when they camped for the evening.

The older Uchiha hated letting others see the weakness he had painfully hidden for an entire year already, and even more the watchful looks from both Juugo and Salad, while the others collected wood to make a fire.

He felt like a fucking prisoner.

After the meal, everyone gathered in one of the two tents to fend off the cold and attempt to sleep a while, except Bolt and him. The boy was taking first watch over him, and Sasuke did not lose the irony of having a stupid brat watch him - as if he couldn't pulverize him with a blink of his eye.

After half an hour, the boy rose from his seat across the fire and sat beside him.

"I'm not afraid of your ugly mug, Stump," Bolt said in a conversational tone, and Sasuke's eye twitched at the disrespectful nickname. "You should actually thank your friends for making you come with us, saves you from a dishonorable death."

"Like you would know anything about honor," Sasuke growled, before lighting a cigarette.

"Well, I did **not **attempt to abandon my kin to fend for himself against the people who want to kill him, so I think the little I know is more than you do," the brat stated. "By the way, the Scumbag asked us to give you this," he handed Sasuke a small folded paper. "You should read it, I know you miss him."

Sasuke shot the boy a venomous look. "Yes, I miss not having killed him when I had the chance," he snarled.

Bolt snorted, and picked up a stick, using it to doodle in the dirt. "Yeah, right. I don't even have to see your emotions playing in your brain to figure out what's your _real_ beef with him," he said, and gave him a side smirk. "Everybody else might be stupid or blind to shit they don't want to see, but _I'm not_, and you having refused to fix that stump of yours is a mile-wide tell. No ninja would purposely carry a battle scar if it wasn't their most important memento, let alone a disability. You carry that stump around because it reminds you of your fight with the Scumbag. It being kept unhealed, instead of just covered like the Scumbag does with his right arm, is proof of your loss to him."

Sasuke felt the hairs at the base of his neck rising in alarm and wonder at the boy's analytical reasoning.

"And the fact you haven't tried to hide that loss even after you began plotting against him shows you don't want to beat him, not _really_. You still believe in him, after all he's done. But his actions make you suffer, suffer so much that you don't want to live anymore, and the funny thing is, _why_? He's certainly not more corrupted than the other Kage – Suigetsu told me you couldn't find shit on him – so why would his actions make you suffer so _much_? Because he's your friend? So what? Friends aren't family, I've never liked mine but even I know that. You suffer more for your family even if you don't like them, because you have to stick together. Nobody else _has_ to stick by you but them."

Sasuke watched the boy doodling with his eyes on the ground, noticing he was drawing different geometric shapes, and connecting them with lines. He turned his face to the fire then, to avoid showing his face.

"The Scumbag was supposed to be your family, then, right?" Bolt asked, and Sasuke blinked. "He probably swore to, and then broke his promise. Nothing new there, he did the same thing to me a lot of times-" Sasuke's eyes widened a fraction "-but then comes the part I don't really understand, because you made a family of your own. It shouldn't have mattered to you if the Scumbag didn't care about you, because you weren't alone anymore. But you obviously don't give a shit about Sakura-san or Salad, given what Juugo and Salad said. And you _definitely_ didn't care about Menma," he lowered his voice at the end, and hummed. "I could think that you only care about family that can protect you, but turning away the only family you got just because of that is really stupid; everyone gets sick or old someday, and then even a young girl with bad sight is better than nothing. And you can't be that stupid, you wouldn't have got all that investigation done if you weren't at least somewhat smart."

Sasuke would've bristled at the last comment if he weren't busy trying to control himself to avoid showing any reaction.

"So you don't need the Scumbag to be your family. But you _want_ him to be. You _want_ him to be there for you. You want so _much_, you want to die because he's not. Such _weird_ feelings," Bolt said, and shrugged. "I'm gonna pee. Try not to act like a Kabuki damsel for five minutes and stay there until I come back."

Sasuke waited until the boy had left his sight, put out his forgotten cigarette and then opened the message.

'_Please forgive me'_

He snarled, balled up and threw the paper into the fire.

After Juugo woke up for his turn watching, Bolt crawled in the tent.

"Bolt?" Salad asked quietly.

"Yeah?"

"When you look at the sky, what do you see?" the girl asked, turning to her side and propping up on an elbow.

"Like now?" Bolt asked, and she nodded. "I see the stars and the moon and the planets, and the sun, even in day time. Then if I focus some more, I see all the things in the air... it was one of the first things I was really afraid of in the beginning, because air isn't nothing, it's like we're in a soup made up of dirt, and moisture, and so many teeny tiny living microbes, when people talk about sterilized environments all I can do is laugh. And then there's the energy. Nature energy, space energy."

"Space has energy?" Salad asked.

"Yup. It trades energy with the planet just like Menma pulls in nature energy and pushes out chakra," he explained. "There's the energy of all things alive, which is chakra, and the leftover chakra from things that died but haven't moved on to become something else yet."

"What do you mean?"

Bolt sighed. "When something dies, everything that was them becomes food for something else or breaks down into itty bitty pieces that will become something else. Some of the parts break down faster, some take a long time, like bones, because bones are minerals. Remember the chemistry experiments Shino-sensei showed us when he taught us how to get rid of bodies during a mission if we weren't able to burn them with fire?"

Salad nodded. They had used rats for that.

"We had to use different chemicals to break down the bones because once the organic stuff was gone there was still a bunch of minerals deposited together, and that only breaks down with mechanical action. It doesn't have chakra, just nature energy, like rocks. But all the organic stuff has chakra attached to it. I think that's where the ghost stories come from. And the chakra never goes away, it's absorbed by whatever eats the organic matter and becomes part of that whatever's chakra."

Salad gave him a quizzical look. "So we have chakra because we eat it?"

"Yup. Last year I followed a pregnant lady all nine months, every day for a little while, to see it happening. The baby starts with a bit of chakra from the mother and father, and everything else is absorbed from the mother, and she fills up when she eats, drinks and breathes."

"But what about chakra patterns?"

"Chakra is just energy, it's like… like radio frequencies. Everyone works at a certain frequency that's set by their genes, and that's our base chakra. But we ninja learn how to modulate our chakra into different types – or we should, I mean, I can do it, don't know why nobody else has tried yet."

Salad's eyes widened in the dark. "Really? You can copy other people's chakra?"

"Yeah," he said, and raised his right hand, concentrating his own light blue chakra on it. "This is my chakra pattern," he explained, and modulated the chakra flow into one with a slight greenish-purple tint. "This is yours," and Salad cooed at it.

He modulated it differently. "This is Menma's."

Salad gaped at the fiery chakra. "Wow, it's _exactly_ like real fire!" she said.

He modulated it back to his own pattern before letting the chakra disperse back into his body. "Yeah, it's bijuu chakra. That's why I can't do that for a long time too, I tried it last week, got my hand burned real bad, Tsunade no baa-chan yelled at us for half an hour," he explained, and put his hand near Salad's nose so she could smell the smoke.

"Damn," she whispered. "Why do we ninja only use chakra to fight and heal people? I mean, look at Shino-sensei's house, have you gone by it? The Aburame gardens are the most luscious I've ever seen, I'd bet there would be people willing to have their bugs pollinate their plants, or kill parasites and stuff like that. It's not like there's all that food going around, poor people hardly have anything to eat."

"Because the people in power are stupid assholes like the Scumbag," Bolt growled. "We never get to learn other uses to our abilities, stuff that could help the ordinary people that plant and raise our food. All the Kage care about is getting money out of them, they're as bad as those Yakuza Stump's been investigating." Salad gave him a questioning look, "Stump, your dad?"

"Oh," she said, and giggled. Yeah, Stump was even better than Sasuke.

* * *

At the breakfast table the next morning, Ino, Tsunade and the two boys finished up the last touches of the plan while Naruto and Shikamaru still slept.

"Menma, are you really really sure Bolt knows what to do?" Tsunade asked.

"Yeah, he knows, he'll catch up on what's different and adapt to it no problem, thanks for helping us baa-chan and Ino-chan," Menma said.

"Inojin, remember to wait exactly at the rendezvous point so I can find you, ok?" Ino asked, and her son gave her thumbs up. "And you don't forget to stay behind Menma when he opens his eye, we're gonna need you to deal with the other adults," he warned.

The four ninja bumped their fists together.

* * *

The returning party took another full day to reach the hideout. Both Salad and Sasuke were breathless with exhaustion by then, the day's walk had been longer than the previous one.

Bolt let out a tiny flare of chakra at the entrance. "Warning them it's us," he said, and noticed Sasuke's right hand moving surreptitiously close to his sword.

They made their way to the lowest floor and Bolt led them to the refectory, hoping Menma and Inojin were ready and in position.

As they reached it, everyone but Ino and Inojin were calmly sitting at a table, eating dinner.

"Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed, getting up, and the Uchiha took a few steps inside, drawing his sword and making the seals to charge it with Chidori. "What-"

Bolt saw Tsunade stand up and take a step to the side, leaving Menma in range, and stepped back, pulling Salad with him. "Come with me if you want to live," he said, and all hell broke loose.

As the Uzumaki boy and the Uchiha girl ran up towards the entrance, they heard the chirping noise and Naruto's warning scream as Sasuke charged towards the blind boy, only to have him slide between his legs, propelled by the former Godaime, and begin running away as fast as he could.

"No! He's gonna kill my otouto! Let me go!" Salad screamed in panic, and Bolt threw her over his shoulder, still running to the entrance.

In the refectory, all four adults present were trying to hold Sasuke from running after the blind boy.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled, intending to summon a thousand clones, and nearly passed out with the exertion. He quickly released all but a hundred and they dropped into the fray, while Shikamaru tried to position himself in a way he could bind Sasuke's shadow alone.

"Let me go, Juugo!" Sasuke roared, and let out a full-body Chidori that knocked the gentle giant out, only to be punched into the wall by Tsunade.

He snarled and extricated himself from the rock wall, only to trip on Suigetsu's liquid body. "Sorry bro, can't let you kill your own kid without even talking to him, Juubi or not," the albino ninja said, and yelped when Sasuke blew a fireball at him.

Sasuke quickly dispatched Naruto's clones. 'So the deadlast really lost the beasts,' he mused as he fought, noticing Naruto had entered Sage Mode. 'Good.'

He turned to the door and teleported as soon as he saw Shikamaru, avoiding his shadow binding technique and knocking the Nara out with the butt of his sword before running after the boy, Naruto and Suigetsu on his heels.

Tsunade calmly made her way out of the refectory, passing through the three ninja while they were fighting on Naruto's bedroom on her way out of the underground structure.

"Sasuke stop this shit right now damn it, or I'll fucking stop you myself!" Naruto yelled, forming a Rasengann while Suigetsu trapped the Uchiha with his liquefied body.

"Should've let me kill it when it was born, you idiot. Now it's become a threat to the world! Have you lost the last of your brain cells to whatever jutsu you say you were put under?" Sasuke growled, and sucked on Suigetsu's chakra with his Rinnegan, knocking him out of action.

"He's not Obito or Madara! He's just a kid, Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, and attacked, only to have the Rasengann poof into nothing as Sasuke sucked on his chakra.

Sasuke had to physically force himself to let go, his Rinnegan eye nearly bleeding with the effort to stop absorbing the Nanadaime's chakra. He head-butted Naruto out of the way, and resumed his search.

"Yo-hoo!" Menma taunted from the top of the curved ramp, and started running like crazy again, knowing Sasuke would've teleported to the upper floor where he was. He quickly ran up the wall and continued running on the ceiling, his enhanced synesthetic senses feeling the man gaining on him at the end of the hallway.

Sasuke jumped to the ceiling and swiped with his sword, only to have the boy drop to the floor and run again. "Fucking little shit," he growled, and teleported to the beginning of the hall, only to be pulled to the ground by Naruto.

"Don't you think you're gonna escape me that easily teme! I'm still Uzumaki Naruto!" the blond snarled, throwing punches on Sasuke's left eye with one hand while holding back his arm with another.

"Get the fuck away from me you son of a bitch! I'm fixing your own stupid mistake!" Sasuke screamed, and bit Naruto's punching hand hard enough to draw blood, taking advantage of his surprise to hit the side of his head with the butt of his sword and push him away.

"Motherfucking interfering asshole," he muttered, using his Sharingan to find the traces of the boy's chakra and moving on to the next upper level, his left eye swollen shut, leaving the Rinnegan useless.

The cat and mouse chase lasted over half an hour, Menma sometimes stopping to taunt Sasuke, and Naruto fighting the Uchiha patriarch all the way up to the entrance at the uppermost level.

'_Guys, we're in trouble, what do I do_?' Menma asked in his head, beginning to feel tired.

'_On it!_' Son Goku yelled, and took the front, morphing the boy's body into his own infant form with a poofing sound and jumping up to hang at the first nearby tree branch as soon as he crossed through the waterfall.

'_Heeey, didn't know we could do that,_' Menma mumbled surprised from the back. Son Goku smirked and thumped on his little chest, letting out a war call before continuing to move along from tree to tree.

Sasuke kicked at Naruto's face and jumped out of the waterfall to the top of its embankment, losing his balance as the blond jumped and pulled him back by his heel and cursing his missing arm for it.

They tumbled all the way down the waterfall, Sasuke losing the grip on his sword as he came up to stand over the river and hurriedly getting a Chidori ready to pierce at Naruto's chest, only to have the blond turn out to be a clone.

"You asshole! What are you trying to do, kill me? I ain't got Kurama anymore, shithead!" Naruto screamed in outrage from the top of the waterfall, and Sasuke growled, jumping up and grabbing him by the collar before headbutting him out of his way.

'_Shukaku, trade with me and try to burrow!_' Son Goku yelled, and their body poofed into Shukaku's tanuki cub form to burrow into a rabbit hole.

Meanwhile, in a clearing not far away…

"He's doing **WHAT**? Stump's gonna kill him and the Nanadaime both!" Salad screamed.

"Stump?" Inojin and Tsunade asked at the same time.

"Sasuke," Bolt explained curtly. "He can do it, don't worry about it," he dismissed Salad's worries with one hand.

"But he can't even see where he's going!" she asked, still unconvinced.

"He's synesthetic, he can't see but he can sense where he is and where we are, he'll get here," Inojin said. "Besides, Mom's out there with a couple of non-chakra based traps, that and Naruto-san is slowing him down, don't worry about it. And Menma is the best blind ninja I've ever met," he completed with a smile.

'_Gaaah! Shit!_' Shukaku screamed internally as his sandy belly got stuck on the exit hole of the rabbit maze he used to escape the angry Uchiha.

'_You fat bastard, get out of there, by Father I just knew you were gonna get stuck!_' Matatabi roared, and took the front, screaming and hissing as he jumped acrobatically out of the hole just in time to escape Sasuke's hand.

Naruto jumped off a tree on top of him, screaming for Menma to run, and Sasuke growled in fury, nearly out of chakra, brawling with the blond until he could get rid of him again and continue his pursuit after the blue and white kitten.

'_Almost there! Kurama!_' Matatabi screamed, and the boy's body morphed into the fox cub, who used his hand-shaped front paws to wave at Ino as he passed her. She waited until Sasuke was almost on top of her, and jumped on his mind, turning his body around and around until it was so dizzy she was thrown out. She woke up in her own body and shook her head, running back to the clearing where the others waited.

"Hey Uchiha! How does it feel knowing you can't control us with that Sharingan anymore?" Kurama taunted, and Sasuke let out a curse, running after the fox and tumbling and crashing around due to the lack of balance brought by Ino's tactic.

"I should've been doing that since I was a genin!" Ino said, panting, as she reached the other side of the large clearing and joined the others. "You're a genius, Sasuke is kissing all the trees on the way here!" she complimented Inojin, giggling.

'_Just a little more… damn it…_' Kurama thought, all the others rooting for him. He broke into the clearing and yelled for Kokuou to replace him, when Sasuke jumped on top of him.

'_Wait, I'll fly away!_' Choumei screamed as Kurama narrowly escaped the Uchiha's fingers.

'_**NO, CHOUMEI!**_' the others screamed, but it was too late.

Menma's body poofed again.

*Squeak?* went the chubby green caterpillar, realizing too late that if they all had been restricted to their infant forms the same would apply to it.

***SQUEAK!*** its body got up on its short, stubby legs in panic.

*_squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak_*

"What the hell, Menma? This ain't time to play stupid damn it!" Bolt yelled as Sasuke scrambled up.

*_squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak_*

Everyone screamed as Sasuke stood, and prepared another Chidori with a snarl.

Naruto barreled into him from behind, and everyone sighed, beginning to cheer the blind boy on.

"Come on Menma, you can do it! Move faster!"

'_Kokuou take the front!_' Kurama screamed, but the infant bijuu shrugged. '_No more chakra to do that, bro. Stupid bug gonna have to get there somehow._'

'_I heard that, you **ruminant**!_' Choumei yelled.

*_squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak_*

The chubby little caterpillar crawled bravely across the clearing with Naruto and Sasuke fistfighting and trying to sweep each other's feet from under each other after it.

"**Come ON**, otouto! Don't you die on me!" Salad pleaded, and Menma nearly shone with happiness. '_Aneki! **That's my Aneki!** Move your fat ass Choumei, or else I'm never eating shiso leaves again!_' he screamed, and the bug squeaked in indignation, but crawled faster anyway.

Sasuke tried to headbutt Naruto out of the way again, but Naruto dodged. "Oh no you don't you bastard!" he yelled, headbutting him instead. Sasuke nearly collapsed backwards, and Naruto grabbed him by the collar at the same time the Juubi poofed back into Menma's form and was grabbed and turned around by Inojin, with everyone else right behind them.

Ino quickly made the seals to enter her son's mind at the same time he entered Menma's.

"Ready?" Bolt asked, and Menma/Inojin gave him the thumbs up signal. "**HEY DUMBASSES, SAY CHEESE!**" he screamed at the top of his lungs, and both Naruto and Sasuke looked at them. "Now!" Bolt yelled, and Menma pulled his blindfold up.

'_Pull, Inojin!_' Ino screamed mentally at her son through their link; the boy grabbed at the two men's minds and, with the help of Menma's Rinne-Sharingan, reeled them in.

The last thing Naruto and Sasuke saw was Menma's unique 9 white-tomoe'd, fiery blind eye, before they fell into a dark tunnel.

* * *

**A/N**:

Yes, this chapter ends in a moderate cliffhanger. Sorry, more info on that (if you haven't figured out what happened already) in the next chapter :D


	15. Chapter 15

A/N:

Man this chapter was difficult to write. But it's extremely important to the story. Please please please tell me what you think, and don't refrain from pointing out any inconsistencies or question me if you didn't understand something.

* * *

And then there was green. The most vivid crayon green Sasuke had ever seen, coming towards him at frightening speed. And there was screaming. He turned his face and saw Naruto's uvula swinging with the Uzumaki's terrified screams as he grabbed him for dear life, and raised his left arm on reflex to push him away.

And then, as he saw his left hand, his small, _child-sized_ left hand pushing at a whiskered cheek, he started screaming himself.

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**"_

*_THUMP_*

*_CRASH_*

*_BUMP_*

*_squeak_*

*_bounce_*

*_squeak_*

*_bounce_*

*_thump_*

*_thunk_*

"It worked! It worked!" Menma and Inojin screamed, jumping up and down as Choumei squeaked away in complaint, having yet again been used as a landing cushion.

"Owwww…" Naruto complained, rubbing his head, and rolled into a sitting position, to see a pair of white-clad legs comically wriggling upside down next to him.

Menma and Inojin ran and started pulling on Sasuke's legs to detach him off the ground, where he had landed headfirst, and the three tumbled with the momentum.

Sasuke shook the green grass off his hair, and jumped up, looking around him in suspicion as the two boys laughed merrily.

"Where the *_beep_* am I?" he growled, searching for his sword, or a kunai, or anything, and finding himself weaponless. He then tried to concentrate his chakra to cast a Chidori, only to find he had no idea where his chakra was. "What did you do to me?"

"You're safe, don't worry. You're just grounded for now," Inojin said with a smug smile. "Menma and I will be going now, gotta take care of your bodies. Kurama's gonna explain, bye!" he yelled, and Menma waved them goodbye, before they disappeared.

"*_beep_* *_beep_*ing *_beep_* *_beep_*!" Sasuke yelled angrily, but stopped on his tracks at the laughing behind him. He turned around to see a five-year old Naruto, clad in green shorts and a white tee with the Uzumaki swirl in orange, rolling around the grass in mirth, tears welling in his eyes. "Stop laughing, you… you… aaarrrghhh!" he screamed, and kicked the other boy's ribs with his bare foot.

Naruto looked up at Sasuke, taking in the blue shirt and white shorts, the adorable pouty expression on his babyish face, and had another laughing fit.

"Agh! Die, die, die, you *_beep beep beeeeeeep_*!" Sasuke shouted again, stomping after him as he rolled away.

"Hey! Language, you *_beep_*ing brat!" another voice was heard, and Kurama's infant-form popped next to them.

"Kurama? _Kurama_!" Naruto yelled, and tackled the fox. "I missed you so much!" he cried out. "Where are we? Menma's mind?" he asked, after the fox bit his butt to get away, looking around curiously.

"A place in it, yes. Our safe place," Kurama answered, and licked his small paws while watching Naruto and Sasuke's wondering gaze around the place.

"What do you mean 'our' safe place, fleabag?" Sasuke growled.

"Our as in _our mind_, Uchiha. We and Menma are one now. The only reason we are all still self-aware is because he willingly adapted his mind to accommodate us as individual beings. We are all parts of him now, as he is part of us," the fox explained, pointing at his face.

Naruto's eyes widened. "You only have one eye," he said wonderingly.

"Yes," Kurama explained. "It happened at the final stage of our merging."

Sasuke quickly put his hands over his eyes, sighing in relief as he felt both of them. "Get us out of here," he demanded, and the fox laughed.

"Sorry, no can do, Godaime's orders," Kurama said with a toothy grin. "We and the other boys knew you'd try to kill Menma as soon as you saw him, and we also know that you two are too thick-headed to fix your bond without causing major destruction and calling everyone's attention, so we drafted this plan to get you out of commission… but then the kids decided to get Tsunade and Ino-chan in on it, and they made the plan even better," he explained. "It was her idea to pull you here, originally we were just gonna Izanami you two."

Sasuke's eye twitched. "You cannot use Izanami, it's -"

"An Uchiha technique? Guess what, boyo, _**we're Uchiha**_. And we are also the Juubi, everything that the Sharingan and the Rinnegan can do the Rinne-Sharingan can as well, but better, because the Rinnegan can't negate its effects. And guess who can't control us anymore? _Sharingan don't work on blind people_," the fox sang, and gave him a smug grin. "I think I'm having the best day of my life, hahahahahahahahahahaha!"

"But if you can use Izanami, why didn't you?" Naruto asked.

"Oh… you're gonna _love_ this. If we used Izanami you'd be stuck inside yourselves and even though you'd be quiet, Tsunade says your bodies would still be subject to your minds. Can't have that, tho, because both your bodies are ill with the effects of your breaking your chakra bond, Naruto. This way, on the other hand, both your minds have been extracted and so your bodies can heal each other at will without your interference," he said. "You should've kept her at your side, you know, Tsunade is way more intelligent than the Nara boy."

"And while your bodies mend their connection, you're free to settle your differences here, without causing trouble for anyone. In here your mind's eye retreats to who you were as children, hence your appearance; and you won't be hungry, cold or thirsty, so be free to slap each other silly to your hearts content. And when you've come to your senses, the both of you, the Yamanakas will return you to your bodies," he continued. "Word of advice, though. Don't try to trick us, it won't work. See ya!" he finished, poofing out of existence.

Naruto and Sasuke stood frozen, mulling over the fox's words. After a while, Naruto gave Sasuke a shy look.

"Sasuke…"

"Get the *beep* away from me, this is your fault!" Sasuke screamed, and ran.

"I know…" Naruto whispered, following him with sad eyes, and then lowered his head.

* * *

"Owwww…" Suigetsu complained, leaning on Juugo for support as they stopped suddenly on their way up the ramp. "What…" he started, and rubbed his eyes. "How the hell did you knock them out like that?" he exclaimed, as Tsunade and Ino carried Sasuke's body inside, followed by the four kids, who were carrying Naruto's heavier frame.

"Let's dump them first, and then explain, shall we?" Ino said with a triumphant grin, and they hastily retreated to the lowest floor, opening the way for them.

"Damn they really trashed the place on their way up didn't they?" Inojin commented. "Be careful with the floor Menma, there's glass lying around," he warned the barefoot blind boy.

They reached Naruto's room and the kids dropped Naruto's body on the floor outside to clear the way for Ino and the Godaime to dump Sasuke's sleeping body on the bed. "At least the idiots didn't break the bed as well," Tsunade said while taking the Uchiha's cloak off. "Bolt, I'm going to move into Ino's room with Salad, you boys can all sleep together," she instructed.

"Awwwwwwwwww… but I like sleeping with Baa-chan!" Menma complained.

"No, you like sticking your foot in my ribs, you brat, even though you sleep on the floor and I'm on the bed," Tsunade replied, snickering.

"I get the bed then!" the boy said, and Inojin sputtered.

"Oh hell no, Bolt's feet stink!"

"My feet don't stink, you momma's boy!" Bolt complained, as they took the trash out.

"I wanna sleep with Aneki!"

"Shut up and hurry up, the three of you, or else you all will sleep with them!" Salad shouted, pointing at the bed, where Ino and Tsunade were arranging Naruto's body next to Sasuke's, and the three boys made disgusted faces. "No! Ew! That's creepy!" they said together, and hurried out as soon as the two men in the bed curled instinctively around each other.

They found the other adults waiting with equally displeased expressions in the refectory, both Suigetsu and Shikamaru holding bags of ice to their heads. "I assume," the Nara said, "you're ready to tell us that this was your plan all along."

"Oh yeah, it was," Inojin said, and moved to the kitchen area to make tea.

"We came up with it last week, I mean, Bolt did," Menma started, and hugged Salad, startling the girl. "You all can explain things to them, I'mma gonna cuddle with my Aneki," he said, and promptly pulled her to sit on the floor, curling down on her lap and nearly purring in contentment. Salad raised an eyebrow, but smiled at the cute pout he made as he hugged her tight, and pet his hair.

"Let me explain it," Tsunade said, and the kids went quiet. "The kids realized, while we were all worried about politics and such, that Sasuke's first move would be trying to kill Menma as soon as he knew the beasts had merged with him, because he saw how powerful Obito and then Madara became in possession of all of them in the war. That, and Sasuke already was wary of him because of his deformity. Besides, they knew that Sasuke isn't stupid, he obviously was feeling the effects of the break in their chakra bond in his body, and considering he never approached Naruto to rectify it they concluded that he was looking forward to dying."

"But if Sasuke dies, Naruto's brain will degenerate all over again, and he'll end up dying too," Ino completed.

Tsunade nodded. "So in order to have both of their bodies back in working order, and the two of them settle their differences without bothering everybody else and destroying the hideout, and avoid Menma being killed, the kids had decided that Menma would cast Izanami on each of them."

Suigetsu and Juugo stared at the boy in Salad's lap. "He can cast _Izanami_?" they asked together in a fearful tone.

"Yes, he can use all the Uchiha jutsu and any form of the Sharingan – and the Rinnegan – and because he's got the full Rinne-Sharingan the simple Rinnegan that Sasuke has can't negate his jutsu. And because he's also the ten-tails he won't lose his eye while casting those strong jutsu, either. But the amount of chakra he can use now is still very limited, most of it is being used to replace the material body mass to keep him at this size, because his physical body is still too small yet. With time, more and more chakra will be put at his disposal because his physical body will grow," Tsunade explained, and, as if on cue, the boy snored and curled up more comfortably on Salad's lap.

"But then while Bolt was out Menma decided to ask for the Godaime and mom's help, because they're adults," Inojin said, bringing a pot of tea to the table.

"Why didn't you talk to me and Naruto too? We got all beat up!" Shikamaru complained.

"Because you men have been proven inadequate for the sort of support the kids needed," Ino said, and raised an eyebrow at Shikamaru's scowl. "Don't you give me that look, Mr. 'I'm a genius', you're the first to brush off the kids as too young to understand anything. Besides, you wouldn't have been so convincing if you knew what was going on, Naruto would've never agreed to it, you wouldn't have agreed with putting Naruto out of commission, so it was all for the best in the end."

"Anyway, Menma let me examine him and his available chakra reserves were less than what would be needed for him to cast Izanami on both of them without hurting his unique physiology, so Ino asked to look into Menma's mind in order to see if talking to the beasts we could get a better idea going. Turns out Menma developed a safe partition in his mind that is separated from the rest so he could hide in there from the pain, during the time Naruto's body was leeching off his chakra. Ino then came up with the idea to pull both Naruto and Sasuke's minds there, so they could learn how to get along again together, which would be much better for them than being stuck inside themselves by Izanami," Tsunade explained.

"The only glitch was that in order for the jutsu to work, we needed both of them to deplete their chakra, so that's why we let Uchiha-san chase after Menma, we knew the Nanadaime and you guys would fight to stop him. It worked really well in the end," Inojin completed.

"So both of them are inside the kid's head then?" Shikamaru asked, looking over to the sleeping boy. "For how long?"

"As long as their bodies need to recuperate and their minds take to settle their differences," Bolt said. "Meanwhile, now that that problem is out of the way, we begin to build a strategy to deal with the people responsible for all this mess. Juugo and Suigetsu brought a lot of material that Stump gathered while investigating the Scumbag and the other Kage, you adults can see it tomorrow."

With that, Ino and the kids got up to get a meal going. Salad asked Bolt to bring them the supplies they had brought from the farm, stuck as she was with her sleeping brother curled up around her like an octopus.

After dinner, they all bathed – with Menma being unceremoniously tossed inside one of the full bathtubs while he slept by Juugo, who was convinced by both Inojin and Bolt that the boy wouldn't even wake up during the process – and retired to their rooms to rest.

"Salad?" Ino asked as the women prepared to sleep. "What do you think of all this?"

Salad turned and gave her a bright smile. "I think for the first time in my life I feel that I have a family, Ino-san."

* * *

"Sasuke?" Naruto asked softly, looking over some bright blue-green shrubbery, in a jungle-like (as like as a jungle drawn and colored with crayons could be) part of Menma's safe place.

Naruto wondered if this place had been inspired or made by Son Goku, who actually did live in a jungle much like this one. Once in a while, huge butterflies or other bugs flew by, and he could hear running water.

"Go away," he heard the Uchiha's sad voice, and faltered for a moment, but then walked towards the sound.

Sasuke was huddling dejectedly, hugging his own knees close to his chest, on a rock by a small gurgling blue stream.

"Sasuke, I," he started, approaching him.

"I said _go away_!" Sasuke screamed, kicking at him.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry…" Naruto tried again, and the other boy turned away from him.

"Why are you sorry? This is what you wanted, wasn't it? I was in the way of your dream of becoming Hokage, you beat me, lied to me that you wanted me by your side, and then abandoned me just like everyone else did. And now I can't even die in peace because stupid Hagoromo tied our chakra and because of that you 'need' me again," Sasuke said, bitterly.

"I didn't want to abandon you, Sasuke. I… I only wanted… I wanted to play nice because Kakashi told me that the Council was still powerful and that he didn't want to deal with it right after the war to let things settle down, so when you said you were going to travel I couldn't go with you and-"

"You couldn't go with me? You didn't want to go with me! Even while the army was going back to Konoha you started pushing me away! When Karin and Orochimaru died-"

"Orochimaru and Karin were enemies of Konoha, damn it! What did you want me to do? Have you got an idea how many Konoha ninja died when Orochimaru killed the Sandaime? Do you know how many people in the army wanted to see him dead? Almost everyone! *Beep*, it was hard enough for me to avoid you from being executed on the spot!" Naruto cried out.

"_**STOP LYING**__!" _Sasuke screamed, and launched himself off the rock, dropping Naruto on the ground and beginning to punch the living daylights out of him. "_**STOP LYING TO ME YOU *BEEP*, YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN'T LET ME BE ALONE AGAIN! YOU PROMISED ITACHI, YOU PROMISED ME, YOU SAID YOU COULDN'T LEAVE ME AND AS SOON AS I SAID I WOULDN'T FIGHT ANYMORE YOU WERE DONE WITH ME AND THREW ME AWAY LIKE I WAS A *BEEP*ING TOY YOU GOT TIRED OF!**_" he grabbed Naruto's neck and started choking him, shaking him back and forth. Naruto's vision began to blacken at the edges.

"_**YOU *BEEP*ING LIAR, ALL YOU WANTED ALL THIS TIME WAS TO SHUT ME UP SO I WOULDN'T BE ON YOUR WAY TO BE *BEEP*ING HOKAGE! YOU *BEEP**BEEP*, *BEEP*ING KONOHA TOOK EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING AWAY FROM ME! YOU SAID YOU *BEEP*ING UNDERSTOOD WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO LOSE YOUR FAMILY, YOU. DAMN. LYING. MOTHER. *BEEP*ING. PIECE. OF. *BEEP*!"**_ he yelled, bashing Naruto's head on the ground repeatedly.

Memories began forming in Naruto's mind at the same time as the world around him became fuzzier and fuzzier; Sasuke's insults and screams and blows fading along with his consciousness.

A new-born baby Himawari in his arms, looking up at him while he cried; Bolt's amazed first look at his sister, when they got home from the hospital; the day he got home to see her crawl to him for the first time, Hinata smiling at him while she knitted; her first toddling steps in the kitchen, while he was heating up some ramen; the first time she said "Papa," and how she used to call Bolt "Bo-bo," following him up and down dragging a rag doll after her.

He remembered, then, when the other Kage had pushed Tsunade to find a replacement until he was ready to take the mantle, citing her old age, the wounds she had received in the war and Naruto's youth as impediments, still in the battlefield, in the first couple of days after the war. The Council had also pressured the daimyo directly, and she had chosen Kakashi as the best choice that was close enough to Naruto to make his transition smoother. And he remembered talking to Kakashi, then, how they should keep the Council and the Sandaime's involvement in the Uchiha massacre under wraps so not to stir up trouble; how Sasuke's presence in the village was already causing issues amongst the ranks, and how Kakashi and everyone expected Naruto to "make Sasuke behave for the greater good," not a fortnight after they had arrived back in Konoha.

He remembered how everyone had treated him as a hero, how they had accepted, admired, loved him… except when it came to his bond with Sasuke. How whenever anyone saw him going to visit the Uchiha, who hardly ever left the rooms allotted to him in the Hokage Tower, they would scowl, or shake their heads.

He remembered how Sasuke had told him he wouldn't accept anyone else but Naruto, and how he had felt his confidence falter at that moment, where they were both dying, that he would ever turn everyone's opinions around. And how he realized later that to make Sasuke acceptable to Konoha while leaving the path to become Hokage open he'd have to, really have to break their bond, just as Hashirama had forsaken Madara so the rest of the Uchiha clan could stay.

And how he realized he actually had no plan in how to make the world achieve true peace, he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life except that he needed to be Hokage, everyone expected that of him, they would all turn their backs on him if he didn't.

He remembered the day Sasuke had asked him to go along on his trip, how the Uchiha had decided to tell everyone he was going to atone for his sins and leave so that when he came back he'd have understood and seen what was wrong in the world for himself, and Konoha would've had time to deal with having him by Naruto's side.

He remembered telling Sasuke he couldn't, wouldn't leave, asking him to stay, that he would find a way… and Sasuke's hurt look when telling him he wasn't doing that just for Naruto, because even if he had given up on the idea of becoming a focus of hatred he wouldn't just let the shinobi system with all its flaws continue. That with or without Naruto he would leave, for it wasn't enough to become Hokage, the problems wouldn't just go away just because the villages were friendly now, didn't Naruto remember the Uchiha had been massacred in times of peace? Wasn't their bond, their pact to work together, to be together, more important than what people would say?

"_I can't," Naruto had said, recognizing the promise in Sasuke's eyes for what it was, and shying away from it. "I can't do this, Sasuke," he had said, trying to convey in one phrase the terror of losing everything he had coveted and earned with so much effort in a lifetime. "Maybe… maybe someday, when… when it's not as risky… when people don't fear you so much anymore…" he had put his hand over his heart, hearing the blood pounding on his ears._

"_What are you afraid of?" Sasuke had said then. "Now is the time to show them your independence, your commitment to true peace for everyone, not only Konoha. Your commitment to change, real change, to-" he had stopped, lowered his head, and Naruto had felt his heart rip apart at seeing tears drop to the floor under him. Sasuke had then begun to chuckle, a dark, sad sound. "As it was to be expected from the hero of Konoha; it is all that matters to you."_

"_That's… that's not true. Sasuke please, please give me some time…" Naruto had said. 'Please don't make me lose everything for you, please don't, I don't think I can live having only you, I'm not as strong as you are,' he had thought._

He remembered that even as they parted, Sasuke had promised to come back, had not given up on him, just as Naruto hadn't given up on Sasuke before, even with them agreeing to break their chakra bond, at least temporarily, so they could feel apart from each other and not go mad if anything happened to one of them in the meantime. And so he had stayed in Konoha, living like a good little village hero, doing the jobs that would make him even more popular, keeping his mouth shut and his head down, feeling more and more as if he couldn't keep things in his head, even more than back when he was at the Academy and his sadness prevented him from paying attention to his studies.

He remembered the sadness, the pain he couldn't share with anyone, the teeny tiny hope that maybe Sasuke coming back and they staying together would be something Konoha would accept.

He remembered turning down hundreds of confessions and courtship offers from girls of all places and social status, being nice to his new fangirls, but never egging them on, and how he had finally understood why the hell Sasuke was so set in not running into Sakura, so annoyed by her presence even if he tried to keep his cool for Naruto's sake.

Because he couldn't be with anyone as long as Sasuke was his most important person, for he had really been in love with Sakura for almost all his life, yes, but he couldn't compare his unrequited love for her with what he had with Sasuke. Sakura lived in his heart and because of that he never told her to give up on their friend even though he would've liked to be more than just that, a friend, to her.

In the best of worlds he wouldn't have to ever, ever choose, would be able to have both, knowing that even if Sasuke's place in his heart was bigger than Sakura's she wouldn't mind because Sasuke was present in her heart as well. But Sakura was a woman, she wanted to have and own Sasuke as much as, or even more than she wanted to belong to Sasuke.

Naruto didn't want to own Sasuke. His love for him was the one of an equal, where neither owned the other but both belonged to each other. Where they could be both free, free to stay together or apart whenever they wanted, because he needed Sasuke like he needed air, but he needed to find out who the hell he was like he needed air, too.

And then that damn mission came, and his mind had been smothered, and now he had **lost**, had lost his most important person in all his life, his best friend, his soulmate; he had also lost the wife that had never been his most important person like his mother had been to his father, but who had given him love and a family, and had lost the little girl he had made, had loved to take in his arms, her blue eyes and black hair, so dark, pulling on his heart as if an echo of a forgotten past... had lost the son he had never understood, the boy that looked so much like him it was eerie, it reminded him of his own childhood, the fears he had gone through and the unhappiness he had lived in…

'_I threw them away… I threw them all away… I lost them and it's all my fault, oh gods I hurt them so much, I never wanted to hurt anyone, if I hadn't been such a coward… if I had gone with Sasuke… if I hadn't broken our bond… if I weren't so fucking stupid, if I hadn't… if I hadn't…'_

The pain in his heart was so great, it pulled Naruto awake, and he found himself in Sasuke's shaking arms, the Uchiha boy sobbing desperately, hugging him. "Don't die, don't die, don't die," Sasuke blabbered incoherently.

Naruto weakly raised a hand and touched his friend's face. "Why?" he croaked softly, and Sasuke opened huge eyes at him. "I was weak… I hurt you… so much… I was weak… and they died…" he whispered, and something of the pain must have shown on his face, because Sasuke pulled him closer, touching their foreheads together.

"_**Shut. Up!**_" the boy screamed fearfully at his face. "Snap out of it, say you're sorry and don't *beep*ing be stupid again, but _**don't you dare**_ give me that stupid "weakness" talk, that's _my_ line, baka usuratonkachi!"

Naruto was shocked numb by that outburst, his mouth gaping open.

They stayed in that tableau for a few minutes, and then Sasuke did something completely unpredictable – and unbelievable, for anyone who wasn't privy of their unique relationship.

He started chuckling, soon followed by the blond, and then they were laughing and crying, hanging on each other.

Sasuke wasn't very keen on listening to Naruto's recollection of his metaphorical oxygen-deprived epiphany, having recognized all the pain, realization and regret into his eyes already, but he knew it was important that the idiot actually verbalized it, not only to acknowledge that he wasn't the perfect man he had tried so desperately to be, but also so he could rationalize it and understand what Sasuke had understood from the start, that it wasn't just his fault that he had fucked up, just as it wasn't just Sasuke's fault that they had ended up armless at the end of the war.

"Can you ever forgive me?" Naruto asked quietly, afterwards.

Sasuke sighed, and hugged his knees, wondering about that himself. "I don't have much choice, do I? I mean, you forgave me for all the shit I did, and understood my motives back then. I'm not going to say I can do it all the same, I'll never understand where you're coming from… I mean, fine, I know what it is to lose my family, to lose those I love the most, but I'll never know what it is to have never even had anyone to begin with or to need acceptance from the village as much as you did," he said carefully, and stopped, wondering if he was able to see things this clearly because he wasn't inside his own body. He certainly didn't feel the weight of his past as much here as usual, for once.

He looked at the blond and realized that maybe the same happened to Naruto, but in a strange way it made him able to extract himself from the cocoon he had woven to protect himself from rejection. Maybe without the emotional weight from his past, Naruto was now able to finally see himself as he was, not as he pretended to be for the sake of everyone else. And that was definitely an improvement.

He snorted, realizing he was, in a very roundabout way, agreeing with the damn fox that Tsunade's idea had been spot on. After all, they were in a way in a brand new mind, which had no time to have built a past.

"I… I don't know how we'll feel when we are back on our own bodies," he started again just as carefully, "maybe when I'm back in my own head, subject to my own brain, I won't be able to fully forgive you. Not for a time at least. You took the only thing that was important in my life from me. But… if you can stay true to yourself, and win my trust back, maybe that might be enough. After all, we'll probably be stuck together like we were before you broke our bond."

Naruto nodded quietly.

"But in order for you to stay true to yourself, you have to understand that what happened to make you do all the stupid things you did began with the way the system was made," Sasuke continued, and scowled. "What I'm going to say now stays between us, if you ever say it to anyone I will rip your head off," he warned, and Naruto gave him a shy look before nodding.

"Before we arrived at the hideout I heard Bolt and Salad talking. And she asked Bolt why ninja didn't use their abilities for other things besides battle. I mean, other uses than just military," he started, and Naruto's eyes widened. "Your son basically told her it was because we ninja were so busy orbiting around ourselves we never paid attention to civilians except to get money from them to do what we wanted, not what was best for everyone."

Naruto slowly nodded. It was one thing he had begun thinking himself after coming out of the jutsu, how he had been simply unmindful of anyone who wasn't ninja. Shikamaru had gone through that as well, and they had talked with each other about it a few times in the hideout, but hadn't reached such a conclusion yet.

"He said that there would never be any peace as long as we ninja saw civilians as a resource instead of people like us. And he's right. I learned the same thing in my traveling, conflict always arises between clans and villages because they see each other as resource competitors, and they see everything around the villages as resources, including the civilians. We ninja consume what those people produce, but we give them nothing back except protection from ourselves. As long as we do that, there can be no peace because there will always be someone who will get fed up with that and seek power to destroy or overtake us," Sasuke explained, and looked pointedly at Naruto. "The Yakuza organization is exactly that, they are actually civilian technicians from Ame that got tired of producing knowledge and technology but never benefitting from anything because ninja keep them in check under orders from the daimyo courtesans, who don't really do anything except pander to us by giving us territories, the villages, and part of the resources from their countries, so we'll force the civilians to work and support everyone who, well, doesn't do anything actually productive, like us and the court."

"And if we don't change that, the cycle of hatred will never be broken," Naruto agreed. "What do those guys do to get what they want?"

"They began by monopolizing the markets and creating dependence of their own country over their technology, and spread out from there to influence the courts and the Kage, promising to maintain the status quo, with the nobles and the ninja at the top, without the necessity of wars and military action. They basically took over our job of intimidating the civilians, and at the same time tied the villages to the daimyo by 'convincing' the Kage and clan heads to live on government pensions, and tied the villages to their own financial system by making the villages take loans backed by the government to support all those pensions. In this way, they have both the daimyo and the ninja in their hands; the daimyo because they took over tax collection and basically control us by the villages debts, and us because they control the daimyo and the villages have grown slack in maintaining their military power by training new ninja properly."

Naruto took a while to digest the news. "*beep*," he finally said. "We are completely at their hands, aren't we?"

Sasuke nodded. "There were only a few clans we haven't been able to link to the scheme, and of all the Kage only you and Gaara have remained clean. Gaara's councilors are all dirty, and in Konoha the main man in charge of the scheme is-"

"Hiashi," Naruto growled, frowning, and Sasuke nodded.

"Yes."


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N**: Hey, it's an update!

Yeah... sorry. I had a ton of stuff to do these past weeks and I wasn't really sure about this chapter, too. Especially since it covers some really mundane preparations and explanations, so it came out kind of boring in my opinion. But I couldn't escape writing it because the story is entering a more complex phase (and panning out the things that will happen in the different places where the plan the guys at the hideout are planning will be developed took me some work too) and I wanted to explain some dynamics I'll be using in the next chapters so I don't have to repeat myself.

By the way this chapter hasn't been beta'd yet, so I might be updating it if my beta find any crass mistakes. Please bear with me :D

As always, thank you all so much for your reviews, they really give me life and strength to continue this (what with all the disheartening crap coming from Kishimoto in Naruto Gaiden too... his writing in that is so bad it's saddening). Please please PLEASE keep them coming and don't refrain from asking anything or pointing stuff out.

* * *

Ino called the others in the morning for an impromptu meeting.

"We're running out of supplies," she announced bluntly. "And if my calculations are correct, we're gonna need a whole lot of carbohydrate sources to feed Menma until Naruto and Sasuke's bodies are recovered," she added.

Tsunade and Juugo had set up the life-support system for the men's bodies in Naruto's room, with IV lines and catheters, and she had asked Bolt to relay to her the exact extent of the damage they had. The boy had easily pointed out the chakra circulation system between the two bodies, and told them that Menma's chakra had been able to partly revert the damage Naruto had caused to his brain to break their bond, but that with Sasuke's body was so overloaded with yin chakra and so depleted of yang it was practically unable to pull on Naruto's chakra and feed him his own, due to clogging on its chakra gates.

Tsunade had then begun to push Sasuke's excess chakra out of his body and into Naruto's, guided by the Uzumaki boy and helped by Juugo's nature energy, mimicking the process that worked in Menma's body. It had been a tricky procedure, and Sasuke's heart had failed three times during the process, but they had finally been able to clear his system enough so that Naruto's stronger chakra circulation system caught on and kept the chakra flowing between them.

At the same time, Menma had woken up on Salad's lap, his stomach growling loud enough to wake the dead. Salad and Juugo had brought all the food supplies they had in the farm with them, and she had gone to her bags to get the boy the two pounds of senbei Juugo had brought back from Konoha City, which he had demolished in under ten minutes, to fall asleep right afterwards.

"It would be necessary to get rice, flour and sugar and stuff like that, we can hunt and fish around here for meat and if we get some small traps we can even get some vegetables growing at the surface," Juugo said, and Inojin nodded.

"Bolt can look for bee hives so we can get some honey too, but Menma will need a lot of sugar, his brain is working for three now, he needs at least an entire pound of glucose a day just to keep it working," the boy stated, and raised an eyebrow at the startled looks the adults, with the exception of Ino and Tsunade, gave him. "What, just because I'm a kid I can't know this stuff? I'm Yamanaka, mom and grandma taught me to read with neurochemistry books," he said, and gave them a smug grin.

Shikamaru looked at Ino with a new respect in his eyes, and she gave him a look twice as smug as her son's. "If you weren't so in love with your own IQ level you'd have noticed what Chouji and I studied on the weekends," she said. "Unlike your family's jutsu, that relies only on your own chakra control, our abilities need us to be aware and understanding of how the body works in the most basic levels. The reason I go into Chouji's body when we use the Ino-Shika-Chou formation is because his mind is focused on keeping the transformation of his body from harming it. I'm there to keep his brain working in sync with what he needs to keep the body from overheating and breaking down."

Shikamaru sputtered. "Why the hell didn't you ever tell me that? I always thought you were there because Chouji was too weak to keep the transformation going for long, and that I needed to control the direction you were going because you couldn't see or something like that," he complained, and she shrugged.

"You Nara never bothered to ask us why it only worked like that," she explained.

Salad raised a hand. "How about Juugo and I go to get the supplies? Most people don't know him and can't detect nature energy anyway, and I can pass as a civilian better than anyone else. We brought some money, too, and if we really have to stay here for a long time we could get odd-jobs in the nearest small village disguised as father and daughter."

* * *

Salad scrunched her nose at the produce in the street market; this late in November only roots and pickled vegetables were actually decent to buy. She decided to get some tofu and buckwheat along with the carrots and turnips, and some miso for soup, before meeting with Juugo, who was currently checking the bars for information.

"Onii-san, do you have some oatmeal or rice flour?" she asked the vendor, who gave her a pained look.

"I'm so sorry, but no… the government tax-collectors have been taking our best produce since last week, because we haven't got enough money," he said. "You'll have to buy that on the kombini market, I'm sorry. We do have some rolled oats, though. And millet… it's good eating for porridges," he offered, and Salad accepted. "My father and I have left a farm and are looking for work… would you know anywhere we can find it?" she asked hopefully. "I can clean, cook, read and write, we're camping outside the village."

"Hmmmmm… can you bake? Noriko at the bakery just lost one of her workers, she doesn't pay much in money but she'll give you as much bread and other unsold goods as you want," the stall owner said, pointing the way to Salad after she enthusiastically nodded.

Salad noticed how poor and less developed the small village they were in was compared to Konoha City. There were basically two streets and a small square in the middle. No hospital, no tall buildings, no school, but there was a shiny kombini right beside the tiny rundown city hall. It was entirely empty of customers, though there were many kids who looked hungrily at the shiny candy and snacks in display.

'Well, no wonder, no way these poor people can pay those prices,' Salad thought, and realized how truly privileged her life back in Konoha had been. She had never had to eat less than the best foodstuffs, and she usually went to the kombini or the burger shop for a snack, as did all the other kids. She lowered her head, thinking again how unfair it seemed to her that the children of ninja, who were basically coddled by the state and did nothing really useful, had access to so much, while the children of the people who actually provided the food for everyone had so little.

She reached the small bakery and to her luck the owner was happy to hire her, especially after she told her she had baking experience. She would begin the next morning; the owner gave her a large basket full of yesterday's goods, for which she was extremely grateful, and through the day she was able to gather lots of information, including the fact that both the bakery and the Ichiraku ramen stall were served by the same wheat flour seller. Afterwards she met with Juugo, and they made their way out of the town to their "camp."

They reached the area, and Bolt, who had stayed there to take the groceries back to the hideout, asked how their day had gone.

"Jobs are hard to find, but the bar owner said he was in need of a big guy like me to deal with the rowdier customers," Juugo said. "Apparently the poorer people get, the more they drink to forget their troubles. The bar owner also said we can stay in a storage room behind it, it opens to a back alley so it's easy for you to meet us to get the supplies and information."

"I got a job at the bakery, the owner said she can't pay me much money but she can give me all the stuff that doesn't sell, look!" Salad stated proudly, showing the basket full of food. "This will definitely help Menma, there are some sweet pastries too," she showed him. "And all the well-to-do ladies shop there, so I'm sure to get information too," she said, beaming.

Bolt nodded at them. "Are you sure you can see without your glasses until we're able to get you better contacts?" he asked, and she nodded.

Bolt had bought some generic contact lenses for nearsightedness from a smuggler in Konoha City before leaving for the farm, and Salad was now wearing them after he had used his paints and tools to draw a different iris on them. Tsunade had also helped, not only measuring the exact prescription for Salad's eyesight but also finding chemicals around the underground compound and coming up with a dye to make Salad's hair ginger like Juugo's.

The girl was now unrecognizable, with longer ginger hair and brown eyes. That, and her civilian chakra levels made her perfect to pass incognito, along with Juugo, whose jutsu was based on nature energy and not chakra per se.

"As soon as I'm able to infiltrate Konoha City I'll have a better set of contacts done for you. Don't forget to use your eye drops," Bolt said as he sealed the supplies on a scroll and Juugo picked up the small tent and other camp items they had brought. "I'll meet you once a week so we can trade info and supplies. Keep your eyes open," he said, and left.

As soon as he was far enough, he teleported back to their base.

"Hey," he greeted. "Things worked damn well, Juugo and Salad are infiltrated. Is Shikamaru ready?"

"Almost," Inojin said. "Mom and Tsunade are finishing his face. He's pissed off, tho."

"Not our problem," Bolt said. "Everybody is sacrificing something."

* * *

After talking and comparing what each other knew about the power situation in Konoha Naruto and Sasuke had suddenly grown ridiculously tired, and slept under one of the trees. Now they were awake, and had walked around for a while. It was night in Menma's mind, now, and a large crescent moon with a sleeping cap slept in the sky, surrounded by five-pointed stars.

"This place gives me the creeps," Sasuke muttered, moving a vine out of the way.

"Compared to what, that craptastic sewer in my mind? I think it's actually nice," Naruto said from behind him. "Bolt and Hima used to draw scenes like this when they were little. It's how kids see the world… I mean, normal kids," he amended.

"Hn. Normal kids don't suck people out of their bodies and trap them into their minds," Sasuke retorted, turning right. "I think I see a light," he said, and they moved towards it.

After some time they reached a tall tree, which large roots formed a circle, a few tiny fireflies resting sparsely around it.

In the middle, piled on top of a bed of soft crayon-drawn clovers, slept the nine baby beasts and Menma.

They were sprawled around and on top of each other, softly purring, snoring, squeaking, or, in Saiken's case, blowing bubbles. Menma was sprawled on top of Shukaku, hugging Choumei with one arm and holding on one of Kurama's hands with the other hand, Matatabi sprawled on his back on top of him, with a paw pushing the boy's chin up.

Naruto quietly sat on top of one of the roots farther away from the scene.

"You know, when I picked him up the only thing I could think was that he was like me. I was seen and treated as a monster too, the only difference was that what made people think I was one was a demon inside me, instead of just having one less eye," he said, almost whispering, and touched the whisker-like marks on his own face.

Sasuke sat next to him, watching the sleeping mound of baby beasts and boy warily for a while, and then sighed. "I was using condoms to avoid another child after Salad was born," he said. "Sakura tampered with them and got pregnant, but I thought that if this new child at least didn't have Salad's bad eyesight… and then he was born like that, and I felt like the butt joke of the world, the last Uchiha who couldn't even make a normal heir, who couldn't even rebuild the clan because his genes were defective." He shook his head. "And then you came and took away even my right to do away with my mistake," he said, looking at the boy with a hurt look.

"But he's not a mistake," Naruto said, pulling Sasuke to face him. "He's not. Look at him. He's one month old, his father and mother tried to kill him, he almost died in my care, he had to grow up in the blink of an eye to survive, and instead of going insane with anger and grief he gave us room in his own mind so we could sort out our differences without asking anything in return. And that's not the first time he does it too, when we escaped Konoha he made me leave his side and go take care of Bolt alone so me and my own son could grieve and bond together, also for nothing. He broke his own mind so the beasts could keep their own selves, Sasuke. That boy has done nothing but good, and he doesn't even think he's doing anything special, he just doesn't like seeing other people suffer."

"You were like that," Sasuke said, and Naruto chuckled darkly.

"No, I wasn't. I never did anything expecting absolutely nothing in return. I always wanted recognition. I always knew that when I talked to people I was doing something 'special' and touching their hearts, and to be brutally honest I did it expecting retribution. I… I can understand that some of that isn't really my fault because I was lashing out at the way the village saw me when I was a kid, but most of it is, and it's not even due to the anger that I carried inside me. I dealt with that anger way back when I was training to deal with Kurama. It's because I thought that unless people sucked up to me, unless I seemed to be better than everyone else, no one would love me. I thought that because, deep down, I didn't.

"You know, when I first heard that you had left, I almost didn't go after you," Naruto continued, hugging his knees. "At first, I thought that you had abandoned me because you thought I was too weak to help you get strong enough to face Itachi. And that hurt like hell, because I was working my ass off to become strong in order to be Hokage, if you thought I wasn't able to help you beat Itachi, how the hell would I ever become Hokage? The Hokage has to be the strongest amongst the ninja; he can't be someone whom Itachi could beat, for crying out loud. And damn, if you thought I was too weak after seeing me beat Gaara, maybe it's because I was."

Sasuke stared at him. Naruto had never said anything about this before.

"And then when Tsunade told us to go attempt to bring you back, even so I thought that if we had a chance it was because there were so many of us in that team, enough to compensate for my weakness. But then… then Sakura said that if there was anyone that could make you come back, it was me, and she begged me to bring you back, and I had no option. I had to promise her I would bring you back for her, otherwise I would be admitting to my weakness. And by promising that to her I knew I was screwing myself over, because I knew you wouldn't come back just for my pretty blue eyes," he continued, shaking his head, "and I would have to prove to you in a fight that I was stronger than Orochimaru. That I could give you more power, could help you get stronger than Orochimaru could. Either do that or die trying, because all that you and everyone else including me respected was power. So you see… in the end, we were even more alike than you ever thought."

Naruto gave Sasuke a sad smile. "But he," he whispered, pointing at Menma, "isn't. He isn't like me, or like you. He hasn't lived long enough or experienced enough to become jaded like us. And he likes himself. Do you know how I know that?" Sasuke looked at him, and shook his head.

"Look at him. Even though he shares his body, his brain, with all the beasts, he stayed separate. He'd rather break his soul and give each of them a little piece of it for them to be themselves together with him than lose who he was and become someone else. The fact that we can see them as separate entities proves it. I once was almost absorbed by Kurama, and I know for sure that if Menma didn't like to be himself like I didn't like to be myself back then, there would be no Menma for us to see here… just like there almost was no Naruto to see in my mind back then, because I really began unraveling. If it wasn't for my father's chakra flaring up and rebuilding the seal there would be no more me.

"What the beasts did was similar to what Kurama attempted that time, except they were all supposed to unravel together so that a different person would emerge in the end of the process, just like the original ten tails. Menma's sense of self was so strong that it couldn't be broken by him becoming the Juubi. He and the beasts are one, except where Menma doesn't want them to be," Naruto gave Sasuke a sad, hopeful look. "And that's why I think you should at least try to get to know him. He's your son; you made him, and even though he isn't you, he has part of you in him, just like Salad has. They exist because you made them, and that makes them precious. Please… please don't wait until you lose them to see that. It happened to me. I had a son and a daughter too, but Himawari was killed, and even while she was alive, because of that damn jutsu and everything I lost contact with her. I missed so much of her life, and I can never make up for it because she's gone. It hurts worse than anything else, you know. And that is why, this time, I am not forgiving Hiashi," he said in a hurt voice, and wiped his face with the back of a hand.

Sasuke looked sideways at him, and opened his mouth, but was interrupted by a sudden double shout.

"BEE!" Menma and Gyuuki screamed at the same time, jumping up, and disappeared. Naruto and Sasuke immediately felt violently drowsy, and groaned as they felt sleep take over them.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N**:

Hi everyone!

What to say, what to say but thanks so much to everyone who reviewed, and uh, please, to those that didn't, can you leave me one on this chapter? I really need to gauge how this fic is going, how many of you all are still reading it and such.

As for the time between chapter updates, I've had more stuff to do (going to start college again soon, too) in real life AND since this story is getting more complex - from this chapter onwards you'll see more stuff happening in Konoha and more story hubs starting to be developed as the corruption in the ninja system begins to be dealt with by the characters - so there's a lot of work being done behind the scenes for each chapter and yes, I can see something like 3 weeks between chapters more or less happening regularly in order for the chapters to come out well-done and beta'ed and everything.

I hope you all enjoy this one, please don't forget to leave a review, I'll answer them!

* * *

B was tired and hungry, but he kept going at a slow pace. Being stopped by random patrols was already annoying, having those patrols attack him without warning just because he was traveling through the trees was even more. Besides, some of the weapons the patrols used were actually damn dangerous, he realized, having been nicked by a projectile.

So he was pretty much keeping to the wilderness and minding his own business, hoping to get to Konoha by the next morning, when a wheezing sound from above caught his attention. He raised his head and was smacked in the face by eight excited octopus tentacles that felt exactly like his old friend.

"Ouch."

"B! B! B! My man! I missed ya!" Gyuuki's voice sounded, the tentacles lovingly squeezing B's head in a hug.

"What a… Hachi?" B exclaimed, the sound muffled, and patted over his face, feeling the creature on top of him. He pulled it off, and his eyes widened in wonder at the chibi-sized, blindfolded Gyuuki. "Dafuq happened to you, bro? Why are you this tiny? And what happened to your eyes?"

"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you what happened, it was an emergency, man. All us beasts had to come together to save this baby that was dying, and now we're all living together in one body and we can't see no more but it's alright, we're fine, I couldn't send you any messages tho because we're all helping out Kurama's boy Naruto 'cause he's been accused of murder and now he's inside us with that Uchiha boy while their bodies heal up because Naruto screwed up big time but it's all good because ole Godaime-"

"Whoa, whoa, hold on a minute dude you gettin' me dizzy," B said, and shook his head.

At that moment, two small boys landed next to them. "What the fuck Menma?" one of them, a blond, said in an alarmed tone, while the other, who was masked and had his hair covered, looked straight at B's face with a somber expression. "Let him go."

Gyuuki turned his head towards the boys. "Hey kids, calm down, B is cool, he's our friend," he said, and looked back. "Um, you're not with all them bad guys who's been stealing and corrupting ninja everywhere and all that are you? Please tell me you're not," he pleaded, and his ears drooped.

B looked first at his beast friend, then at the two boys, and shook his head. "I been meaning to talk to Naruto about that, I seen things… things that are shameful to all ninja going on during my trip."

The masked boy looked at the blond one and nodded. "Come with us, we know what's going on. And we could use your help."

* * *

Sasuke slowly blinked his eyes open to see Naruto asleep beside him, propped up against the tree root, his legs hiding him from the boy sitting a few feet away.

He couldn't see exactly what Menma was doing, but by the look of fierce concentration in his one-eyed face, with his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth, and the way his hand moved, he imagined the child was drawing.

"I know you're up, please don't mess Papa up, I'm making a picture of him," Menma asked conversationally, and Sasuke felt an unpleasant sensation in the pit of his stomach at hearing Naruto being referred that way by the boy.

"He's not your father," he retorted without thinking, and the boy gave him an unimpressed look.

"He offered to be my Papa when no one else wanted me. He gave me my name, Uzumaki Menma. He took care of me, and taught me who I am. Who are you to say he's not my father? The only thing you and I have in common is Aneki," he said in a sad, but resigned tone. "Bolt is more important to him than me and I know that, he made _Bolt_, he didn't make me. But he's my Papa, for as long as he wants to be," he finished, and stood up with the sheet of paper, the crayons dissolving into thin air as he walked away.

Sasuke had no idea what prompted him to follow the boy except boredom, but follow him he did, for an immeasurable length of time, through different sceneries, and finally into a small cave.

He carefully followed down a steep, slippery curved ramp, cursing himself for being too cocky and never actually learning how to move in the dark because he had the Sharingan.

He began hearing soft sounds, snippets of conversation and singing, and moved a bit faster, curiosity gnawing inside and winning against caution.

As he turned again, he felt a tingling sensation cross his body, and suddenly found himself in a large room, illuminated by small floating screens at the front, and bluish glow worms on the walls and ceiling at the back.

Sasuke stopped in front of one of the small screens, recognizing a shock of blonde hair. He saw a small chubby hand stretch towards it, and grab an immense-looking finger. The view stayed on the finger for a long moment, before it moved upwards, where a gigantic nose was, framed by blue eyes and short yellow hair. Coming from the screen was the muffled sound of rain, and soft, low-toned conversation.

He strained his ears, moving closer to the screen.

_Tsunade sighed, and pulled a chair for herself. "Naruto, how much do you know about Sakura and Sasuke's marriage?" she asked in a tired voice._

_"Not much, well, you know… what with me and Hinata getting married, and the kids, and all, we kinda lost contact," he said in an embarrassed voice._

Sasuke scowled at realizing Tsunade had been privy of his relationship problems, but before he could lose interest in what they were saying, his attention was caught by movement on the screen.

_"Yes. I don't think either of them will want this poor thing," Tsunade stated, looking down at the deformed newborn with pity. "To be brutally frank, I don't think there's anyone who would want a child with such a severe abnormality. It's not life threatening, but the disfigurement…" she shrugged._

_"I'll take him," Naruto said without thinking, and then stopped, startled._

Sasuke's breath faltered for a moment, as he felt a wave of emotion emanate from around the screen, and saw a faint, soft and warm treacle of nearly invisible purple chakra flicker from the tiny hand to Naruto's finger.

Bolt had told him how Naruto's body had depleted Menma's chakra in order to begin fixing the damage from the breaking of their bond.

Sasuke saw the little hand shake Naruto's finger, and heard a tiny coo before the view moved up from the finger to Naruto's face, which melted in a tender, compassionate look of the sort Sasuke had only seen once, more precisely, when he himself had cried at their last battle.

_"I'll take him," he repeated. "What better parent for a monster than another, huh?" Naruto asked, and grinned at Tsunade,_ _before extending his arms down,_ the view in the screen moving as Menma was being picked up.

Tsunade was saying something in the background, but Sasuke was mesmerized by the look in Naruto's face as he studied the baby in his arms, so he didn't pay attention to the words, until Naruto stood up and cradled the baby's face protectively with a hand as he walked.

"_Hi, I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I'm sorry about your mommy and daddy not wanting you… I didn't have a mommy and a daddy too, so I know how it is," Naruto spoke to the baby in a soft voice. "And I know it's hard to grow up with people being afraid of you. So, if you don't mind, I can be your Papa, at least until your daddy stop being an asshole long enough to realize this isn't your fault, ok?"_

Sasuke saw the borders of the screen become purple with the child's chakra pattern, and moved away from the screen, unable to take any more of it. He moved through the room, noticing the other memories from the deformed little boy, glimpses of the sky through a window, moments with Naruto, Tsunade and Shikamaru, mostly, but also with Sai, Ino and Shizune. He noticed the view changing as the child had obviously gone through his extreme growth rate, Shikamaru teaching him to read (and floating kanji around that particular screen), Ino showing him flowers (the same that were spread out in the meadows where Sasuke and Naruto had landed on their arrival in Menma's mind), Sai's face up close for a long moment, then the view changing to show his hand helping the boy trace with a crayon, images, sounds and emotions coming out of each screen.

And among all those, not a shred of the lonesome bitterness that had taken over Sasuke's being so long ago, he couldn't imagine himself without it, and the desperate fear of abandonment that Naruto wore like a shroud ever since Sasuke had seen him for the first time.

There was some sort of loneliness there, reflected in moments when the child woke up and looked at the sleeping man curled around him, but it wasn't bitter, or angry. It felt resigned, in a strangely familiar way, and Sasuke frowned, trying to analyze where he had felt it before, until a memory of his own hit him like a freight train.

He remembered his battle with Itachi, the exact moment his brother had smiled at him before dying, and widened his eyes as he realized that Naruto had never sucked the chakra out of Menma's body; the boy had _given_ it to him, just like Itachi had given his life for Sasuke.

He moved shakily forward, passing by a screen filled with childish screams, and saw as the boy looked up to the crayon-blue sky, the baby beasts falling and piling up before him, and a few others, all showing moments inside Menma's mind, where the beasts talked to the boy, played around with him, began adding their own touches to the place, glow worms beginning to appear as the screens became rarer and rarer.

After the last screen, there was a crack on the floor, that Sasuke only noticed by stepping on, and he screamed as he felt the memory of Menma's final merging with the beasts as if it was his own,

_the terrifying feeling of heaving his last breath, his body and mind breaking down, and a steely determination to __**survive**_

that wasn't his own, as he remembered

_grabbing his beast friends in a ferocious grasp with his soul so they wouldn't get lost, because feeling lost and alone __**hurt**_,

and Sasuke threw himself forward, as he realized that the same hurt he felt when Naruto hurt and that Naruto felt when he hurt was something Menma felt for _everything_, and it was so much more than one person alone could take, he thought he'd surely go crazy with it.

He fell away from the crack in a huddle, and took a long time willing himself to calm down.

Moving forward, Sasuke crossed more complex, abstract memories: smells, sounds, chakra, nature energy, touch, flavors, all the other sensorial stimulus coming together in a bizarre; blurry sight-not-sight that made him dizzy, especially when related to people: Bolt was a humorously wheezing blur of sound, sweat and sizzling, angry chakra; Juugo was a tiny ball of soft fluffy warmth surrounded by a tornado of nature energy; Suigetsu felt like sitting in a lukewarm bathtub with toy boats and rubber duckies; Inojin was the feeling of running after a rabbit in a lavender field on a spring morning; Salad felt like being cradled in loving arms by a giant purring cat, of all things, and Sasuke…

Sasuke winced as he felt himself through Menma's senses, sharp cutting, the sound of fingernails scratching a chalkboard, the taste of steel, the smell of fear and hatred, and the sharp freezing cold of mid-winter winds. He thought it couldn't get worse, as he stepped sharply to the left to get away from it, and then stumbled against a wall and right into another, much darker memory.

He flinched from the absolute bitter taste, the smell of blood, the sound of cringing teeth, the entire memory screaming of hard, brittle selfishness that would consume everything around it. _Sakura_.

He actually felt his skin try to crawl away from him at the feeling, and jerked away from the memory, wondering how the hell he hadn't been able to see her for what she was. Not even Orochimaru had felt as _alien_ as she did.

He shuddered, and felt warmth up ahead attracting him like a flame did a moth.

He found Menma in a small nook with his crayon pictures of everyone he had seen, including Inojin inside his mind and chibi!Naruto.

"Why did you let me see all this?" Sasuke asked.

The boy gave him a cursory glance, and went back to sorting his drawings. "You'll be going back to your own head soon, and I thought maybe if you saw what I've seen you might leave me alone and stop trying to kill me," he said quietly, shrugging.

* * *

Killer B thanked Ino for the tea she offered him and took a sip of the hot beverage.

"I've been through a few villages on my way here, seen how things are. It's hard, people. Takes the rhyming right out of a man's heart," he said in a sad voice. "I been sort of a loner all my life, I like rappin' but peace and quiet in isolation is good for me most of the time. If it wasn't for Gyuuki leaving all of a sudden I prolly wouldn't have ever known the goings on. Fishface here is right, them Yakuza been taking over everywhere, using ninja as their guard dogs. Crappy ninja too, not like the good ole days. No backbone on ninja anymore. No pride. No use, either, they all getting fat and stupid on top of regular people's backs, that ain't right. Back in the day we was mercenaries but at least we earned our livin'. Now we don't even do that."

"We have to find a way to get more allies so we can fight this Yakuza people, find their leader," Shikamaru, disguised as an old man, said, and scowled when Bolt, Inojin and Tsunade snorted at him. "What?"

"We're not dealing with a regular run of the mill enemy here, brute force won't work," Bolt said.

Tsunade nodded. "What is happening now is a consequence of the caste system. Yakuza were civilians who saw a way to gain power by manipulating the ninja villages into doing what they want just like Grandpa manipulated the ninja clans into forming the villages. Grandpa meant well, but isolating ourselves from the civilians even more than the clans did individually ended up opening the way for this whole mess."

"What do you expect us to do then? Infiltrate back among the civilians like Salad and Juugo are doing for information? And then what?" Shikamaru asked. "How are they going to help us? They have no strength."

"No, they don't, but they got numbers. And they are the ones that actually do the work, who feed and clothe everyone, including ninja, nobles and Yakuza," Ino said. "My family deals with civilians in a daily basis because of our business, we depend on them just like the villagers who want to buy flowers depend on us to sell them. If we can mobilize the civilians, inform them, get them on our side, maybe we can hit the enemy where it hurts."

"This enemy is spread out like rats, so we deal with them like we deal with rats. We starve them out of their hiding places, make them move out in the open where we can get them," Juugo said, and Shikamaru stared at him.

"Are you seriously suggesting we provoke public insurrection? Overthrow the daimyo? The Kage?"

"Why not, the current system sucks anyways," Inojin said quietly, and the others nodded.

"But, but… who will lead this? How will we get the truth of what's happening out?" Shikamaru asked, dumbfounded by their audacity.

"Well, we do have a famous rapper right here, don't we?" Tsunade said, smiling. "Nothing better to draw a crowd than a show."

B gave her a huge grin. "Yep. And I heard Suna is lookin' fine this time of the year, all I need goin' that way is a roadie," he said, staring at Shikamaru.

* * *

Two weeks later, Salad was able to send a coded letter to Ayame through their common flour provider.

Ayame quickly read the letter after paying for her order, and grinned, before putting the paper away and greeting her first customer.

"Ayame-san," Sai said, grinning.

"Sai-san, long time don't see, buying herbs and ink again?" She said in a light, but still professional tone, and the ink-nin nodded. "Let me get the new menu for you," she said, and moved behind a curtain to the back of the stall.

Sai had been walking around after "herbs and ink" in this part of town for a week already, and after a careful approximation he and Ayame had begun to trade valuable information between the village and the city outskirts.

Ayame came back with a small menu, and gave it to Sai, who read it quickly and smiled at her. "I will have your pork ramen, then," he said, and pulled a small scroll off his pouch, drawing a school of fish in it before handing it to the stall owner. "Fish for a pig, may they bring you good luck," he said, and she bowed in thanks at him. "I will cherish this art with honor, Sai-san."

A week later, Salad pulled the small scroll out of a bag of rice flour, and smiled. She passed it to Inojin along with the week's supplies for the hideout and Juugo's report, not missing the happy smile in the boy's face as he recognized the scroll.

"Thank you so much, Salad-chan," the boy whispered, and hugged her in thanks before leaving.

"Don't forget to give Menma his senbei!" she whispered and hugged him back, before shooing him back to the hideout.

Inojin ran as fast as his legs could take him, and called out excitedly as he entered the lair. "Mom! Mom! We got a message from Dad!"

Everyone – except Naruto and Sasuke, who were still in Menma's mind as their bodies recovered, and B and Shikamaru, who were on their way to Suna – gathered in the refectory to receive the news. Inojin spread Sai's drawing on the table and quickly performed the Chouju-Giga technique to release the message from the drawing.

_Family, Godaime-sama and everyone,_

_Everyone is accounted for and under watch in the village by the Hachidaime's orders. Both Iruka-san and Konohamaru-kun have been detained after trying to leave the village without orders, but they are still alive. There are strange new ninja and civilians with advanced vehicles and strange weaponry around the village and the city. Phones and other electronic communication aren't safe._

_The Hyuuga ninja have been detached to guard the Hokage Tower and patrol the village at night. It is seldom that we don't see one of them with the Byakugan activated, snooping around. That makes using my ink rats very dangerous, so we've been working with other methods in gathering information._

_Hiashi has been arguing with Sakura often. She insists on sending trackers out to find the Uchiha, while he wants to find Naruto first and foremost. Because of that, apparently the other Kage have been annoyed, and are beginning to withdraw their search parties. That is forcing Konoha to pay bribing fees to keep the foreign trackers working; a direct result is that the clans have had their pensions reduced, and tempers have to slowly rise._

_If you send anyone to the city, tell them to not use chakra in any circumstance out in the open and to not trust strangers, for many trackers have been working under cover. Oh, and tell Dickless if he and Sasuke don't fix this stupid mess soon I will paint a fresco of them both naked in compromising positions right next to his face in the Hokage monument._

_Yours,_

_Sai_

Inojin gave his mother a knowing look when she smiled as Tsunade finished reading the letter aloud, and Ino absent-mindedly slapped the back of his head.


End file.
